Running out on to the pitch to a chorus of ironic wolf whistles is not an experience many footballers go through.

But kitted out in a fetching pink colour, Brighton and Hove Albion's 1991 team just had to grin and bear the heckling at away matches.

The club's 1990-91 season will be etched on supporters' memories for many reasons.

There were Mike Small's 21 goals during the campaign and Bryan Wade's four strikes against Newcastle.

A sixth-place finish and play-off final heartbreak against Notts County completed the story.

But among the most painful memories are the club's two ghastly pinkish away shirts that brought titters and barracking across the country.

As the club battles to hold on to its Division One status at Grimsby tomorrow, Bobby Zamora and his teammates will hope to be in the pink tonight but glad they are not wearing it.

For the 1991 aberrations have been nominated as among the worst kits of all time in a BBC poll.

Away from the Goldstone ground, the Seagulls trotted out in a white shirt covered in tiny red squares, which looked pink from a distance.

A one-off kit was also produced for the Wembley play-off final, which looked as if someone had wiped a blood-stained knife all over the shirts and shorts.

Dean Wilkins, captain in the final, recalled: "It was a one-off because it had Wembley 91 written on it.

"I thought it reflected the time - it was quite bright and lively. But the players were shocked when they saw it so I'm not surprised it has been named one of the worst kits.

"Personally, I thought our usual away kit was worse.

"It had lots of small red squares on a white background and a white band with NOBO written on it. It also came with skin-tight shorts."

However Dean, the Albion's current youth team coach, believes there are worse contenders. A chocolate-coloured Coventry City kit from 1978 was his personal choice.

He joked: "If the brown Coventry kit doesn't win, there is something wrong. At least ours was a bit of fun."

The debate was sparked by BBC Five Live, which has been collecting old shirts to send to impoverished football fans in South Africa. Fans have been nominating their most embarrassing or hilarious kits for special mention.

BBC correspondent Tom Fordyce said: "Brighton's away shirts of 1991 were supposed to be a vogue-ish combination of red and white.

"Sadly, the pattern was such that it appeared the players had hacked someone to death while wearing a white shirt and then wiped their bloodied hands on their chests.

"This of course came from a club which once extended their kit's blue and white stripes from their shirts to their shorts giving the impression they were wearing Tesco carrier bags."

Other kits nominated include Arsenal's yellow and black away kit of 1991 and a tiger print Hull City kit from 1992.