This isn’t a quiz because I don’t know the answer, but does anyone know why Wimbledon wore their away kit at Selhurst Park?
The weird thing is, up until yesterday I have never even really noticed it as unusual but it suddenly occurred to me the best part of a quarter of a century later
ChatGPT:
There is a real explanation for why Wimbledon wore an away kit at Selhurst Park in early 2001 (e.g., the FA Cup replay vs Wycombe) — and it isn’t mysterious at all once you put the context together:
1.
Wimbledon weren’t actually at their real home
During the early 2000s, Wimbledon FC had moved their “home” matches to Selhurst Park (Crystal Palace’s ground) because their traditional home at Plough Lane had closed back in 1991 and they hadn’t built a new stadium yet.
So matches against Wycombe or others were official home games still for Wimbledon — but played at a neutral-looking venue.
2.
Kit conflicts often happened back then
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, teams changed kits if colours clashed or if the away kit simply provided better contrast on TV/with officials — and this was before strict modern rules about primary/secondary kits were fully enforced. There are plenty of historical examples where teams have worn away shirts even when nominally at home purely to avoid colour confusion with the opposition or referees.
3.
Wimbledon’s identity and colours were in flux
While most of their history was in royal/dark blue home shirts, during that period Wimbledon experimented with kits under different manufacturers and sponsors, and they sometimes used alternate colours even at home for cup ties or special matches. It wasn’t unusual for the away kit to be worn if there was any chance of kit clash or poor contrast — especially in competitions like the FA Cup where an away side (e.g., Wycombe’s kits) might look similar on broadcast or in referee assessment.
Unfortunately there aren’t specific match reports saying “they changed because of a colour clash that day” — but given how common that was at the time, the most likely reason is simply this: the kit clash/contrast requirement forced Wimbledon to use their away shirt despite being at their temporary home at Selhurst Park.
In short
Wimbledon wearing their away kit at Selhurst Park in 2001 was almost certainly due to a colour clash/contrast decision for that specific match, not anything symbolic — it just looked odd because they were technically the home team in someone else’s stadium.
The club’s ground-sharing and kit experimentation around that era makes these situations more noticeable in retrospect.
If you know the exact shirt designs that clashed that day, I can even help you identify which kits caused the conflict! 
A little more context from it. Still not definitive though!
Here’s what I can confirm about the **Wimbledon vs Wycombe FA Cup tie on 20 February 2001 and the kit question:
The Match
This was the FA Cup Fifth Round replay at Selhurst Park (Crystal Palace’s ground). Wimbledon and Wycombe drew 2–2 after extra time (with Wimbledon scoring early and late, Wycombe hitting back), and Wycombe went through on penalties 8–7.
Why Wimbledon Wore (Sometimes) Their Away Kit
There’s no specific official match report online explaining the exact reason for a particular kit choice that night (club programmes/pictures from the period are the best historical evidence). However, based on how kits were handled at the time:
Ground-sharing context
Wimbledon were playing home games at Selhurst Park in this era due to their own ground being closed. That sometimes affected kit decisions because the venue wasn’t their own traditional home pitch — but they were still the “home team.”
Kit clash / contrast rules
Under traditional FA Cup requirements (before very strict modern branding rules), if the two team colours clashed or didn’t provide enough contrast for players, officials and TV, one or both teams would change — even the home side. One historical FA Cup rule used to state that if colours looked too similar, kits could be changed for visibility.
Wimbledon’s home kit in 2000–01 was a dark/navy base (Puma-made) and Wycombe’s colours would also contain dark elements, so the away kit (lighter) may have been selected to give clearer contrast on the night.
There aren’t documented match notes from major news sites explicitly stating “Wimbledon wore their away kit because…” for this exact match, but the combination of Selhurst Park being a neutral-looking venue and better kit contrast for players/officials/TV is by far the most common and logical explanation.
In short:
Wimbledon sometimes wore their away shirt in cup ties when their normal colours risked a clash or poor contrast.
Playing at Selhurst Park didn’t change them being the “home” side, but practical matchday/visual considerations often dictated kit choice around that era.
So it wasn’t something unusual or symbolic — it was a practical kit choice because the usual colours didn’t work well for that pairing under the rules of the day.
If you want, I can track down a photo from that exact night’s programme or archives to show exactly which shirts they wore.
lol AI is worse than useless for most things
Yes and no. It’s very good for productivity, doing arduous work with a known data set and its quite good for feedback for things like presentations etc. But yeah, if you ask it to provide the data, it gets things wrong, quite badly sometimes.
No human is losing their jobs at the moment.
And I’m still waiting for it to be able to take my dog for a walk!
Agreed, there is a small subset of stuff that it’s very good at (like taking and summarising meeting minutes, suggesting structure and improvements to the wording of reports.) But people can be fooled that because it’s good at those things then it must be good at other things too. And it really isn’t.
AFAIR they thought the home kit was unlucky.
I was hoping it might be mentioned in the excellent COTN but it is not, although I know you would have checked there.
Thanks for bringing the quesiton up, as I’ve just got lost reliving that evening and the Cup run, happy days.
Wycombe Wanderers Match Report 2000/2001 by Chairboys on the Net
Yep, I have two work colleagues who can’t do anything themselves and nearly all the emails I receive from them are AI generated and regularly riddled with errors.
Purely fromnmemory, so it may not be accurate I understand , they had won in that kit in previous rounds so regarded it as their lucky cup kit
Simple as that !
Maybe Gaz can enlighten us at the next players reunion