An unusual turn of events saw both the home and away teams wearing Crystal Palace shirts at Selhurst Park this weekend.

Barnsley had to ditch their kit and wear Palace’s away strip because of a kit clash.

Referee Kevin Stroud said Barnsley’s home and away kits were too similar to Palace’s traditional red and blue kit so they had to wear the home side’s yellow and blue away shirts.

The Barnsley team were given the option to wear their warm up tops but declined.

This meant they had to join the throng of home fans taking advantage of some club shop deals and purchase 20 away kits at a 10 per cent discount.

It was then a race against the clock to get the shirts ready in time for kick off, with the club shop having to name and number all the shirts for the Barnsley team.

Crystal Palace’s kit man, Brian Rogers, had to drive over to the training ground to pick up some other shirts for the away side.

Mr Rogers, who has worked at the club as a kit man and also a coach driver for 15 years, said there was even a suggestion that the Barnsley team should wear bibs.

He said: "I have never ever come across something like this before.

"Luckily they threw their shirts into the crowd afterwards so I did not have any extra laundry to do.

"It was quite funny to be honest, especially when the ref took one look at the kits and just asked the Barnsley kit man how many bibs he had.

"He only had five so I suppose that was never an option."

Crystal Palace defender Joel Ward said it was strange seeing two sets of Palace shirts in the tunnel before the game.

He said: "It was quite weird and quite funny when we were lining up in the tunnel but when we were playing the game we didn't think too much about it as we are focused on our job."

One of the other occasions Palace found themselves in a similar situation was on January 15, 1977 when Grimsby had to wear their kit for a game.