While Gearoid Morrissey departed at the end of the 2014 season, joining Cambridge United, Caulfield made a number of signings as the club sought to remain as challengers for the title. Republic of Ireland internationals Liam Miller and Alan Bennett, Kieran Djilali, Karl Sheppard and Gavan Holohan were all added to the squad and there was a big change in the outfitting department too.
With the Umbro contract having expired, a new agreement was signed with Teamwear Ireland, who were able to supply Nike kits for the club. During the transition period, though, older Umbro kits were were in two friendlies. the 2012/13 home with white shorts and socks against the touring American PSC Soccer Acaemy (top left), and then, against Finn Harps a very strange combination was seen. City were playing three friendlies in two days over a weekend, against the Roscommon & District League, Finn Harps and Athlone Town and, after playing Roscommon in the new Nike away kit on the Friday night, it had to be laundered to be ready for the Athlone match. Kit manager Mick Ring had intended that the old 'Foras' strip, again with white shorts and socks, would be used against Harps on the Saturday morning but they too had white socks. A limited number of blue pairs were found and as City had fewer players, they had to line out looking like the Czech Rebublic (above left).
While the Teamwear deal meant another template for the home shirt, and therefore no red trim, a good choice was made from the available options (left), even though Bray Wanderers' home shirt employed exactly the same style. For the first time in about seven years, City players again had the option of wearing long sleeves, though some preferred to have two short-sleeved shirts. The away strip was red again, with a white 'fade' effect the bottom of the shirt (top right). Again, the club were restricted to choosing a template and this was a design first seen on Barcelona (in yellow and orange) in the 2012-13 season, but it proved to be a popular seller in the early part of the season. For the Munster Senior Cup clash away to Waterford United, Ring opted to pair the away shirt with the white home shorts, effectively giving the impression of the fade continuing down through the kit (above right).
Though charting goalkeepers' kits in previous seasons has proven difficult, it is something which we hope to do. For now, we will include the strips worn by the netminders in the current season. For the season opener away to Sligo Rovers, Mark McNulty was kitted out in all-blue, as he had been for the previous two seasons with Umbro (far left), with the kit in the same style as the home. However, for most of the rest of the season he preferred a yellow and black alternative (middle left). For the game at home to Bray, whose change kit is yellow and blue, he wore a purple version of Nike's Goleiro template (right) and saved a penalty.
