The New Saints 2019/20 Home Shirt

The shirt of the year the machine stopped. After eight consecutive titles, TNS saw the 2019/20 season halted by the pandemic and the league awarded to Connah's Quay Nomads on points per game, ending one of Europe's longest hegemonies. Legea, who dressed the Saints for seventeen years, signed off green raglan sleeves and hoops that only start below the chest, leaving clean space for the dragon and lion crest.

The best detail hides on the back: a red Welsh dragon embroidered on the nape, the statement of a club that plays on English soil but prays for the Welsh league. In 2021/22 they would be champions again, as if nothing had happened.

Here at Hoopster, it lives next to its older polo collared sister: one tells of the imperial years, this one reminds us that even dynasties breathe.