Bristol Rovers suffered the ultimate Mansfield Town embarrassment - it's never been seen before in the EFL | OneFootball

As if relegation wasn't embarrassing enough for Bristol Rovers, this compounded the issue

In May 2014, Bristol Rovers had perhaps the darkest day in the club's history. And the misery would be compounded by a fairly common occurrence, although what would follow certainly isn’t common. In fact, it would appear that Rovers are the only club to have ever experienced this situation.

While starting the final day of the campaign three points clear of the relegation zone - and up against an uninspiring Mansfield Town who had been spanked the week before by a Torquay United side already relegated - Gasheads could’ve been forgiven for being confident of survival. It wasn’t to be, however, as the Gas fell to a defeat while their nearest rivals won, sending Bristol Rovers out of the Football League for the first time in the club's long history.

There is, naturally, a level of embarrassment whenever a club is relegated, but nothing could prepare the Gas for the humiliation that would be accompanied by an exit from the English Football League, as the Gas would be relegated by a club wearing their own badge across their chests due to an error from Mansfield’s kit man who had forgotten the club strip.

Kit clashes in English Football

Of course, there are plenty of examples of teams having to wear their opposition's kit for a match – usually where the referee deems there to be a kit clash. And there are even examples of kit men forgetting the kit.

In the Premier League, for example, during the 1996-97 season, Ruud Gullit’s Chelsea had to wear the away kit of their opposition that day, Coventry City, due to the Stamford Bridge outfit's kitman forgetting to pack the Chelsea away strip.

And in 1982, Sheffield United were forced to wear the away colours of Colchester United due to the Blades having a shirt sponsor that wasn’t permissible on television. No strangers to wearing their opposition's kit, the Blades would again do so when neither their home nor away kits were acceptable when they played Tranmere Rovers in 2000.

Frequent opponents of the Gas, Oxford United, are also no strangers to this situation. In 1998, the U’s had to wear the blue of Watford’s away kit when the Oxfordshire side only took their yellow home kit for the fixture at Vicarage Road. And in October 2005, Oxford were forced into a situation where they had to wear the orange kit of Barnet after the Bees unexpectedly changed their home kit two days before the start of the season. Later that campaign, Oxford would again be forced into wearing their opposition's colours as they competed in the youth kit of their opponents that day, Boston United.

Bristol Rovers may be regretting their Mansfield Town courtesy

Rovers at least didn’t have the embarrassment of forgetting their shirts – they were playing at home after all, even Rovers surely couldn’t make that mistake – but it would be their opposition on that fateful final day of the 2013-2014 season when, not for the first time that season, the kit man had traveled to an away fixture without the teams kit - having previously forgotten to take the kit to their match against Torquay United. Cue a request from Mansfield to borrow a kit from the Gas, which, naturally, the Rovers' hierarchy agreed to and would loan the Stags a kit worn by the Rovers Youth team. A decision they would come to regret.

So, while there are plenty of examples of clubs wearing their opposition shirts, this unique scenario is unheard of and unlikely to ever happen again - at least you'd probably become a millionaire if you were to bet on that happening to your team should it ever occur. Therefore, Bristol Rovers can stake the unfortunate claim of being the only club ever in the history of the English Football League to have been relegated by an opposition wearing their own kit, losing 1-0 to Mansfield.