SAINTS have returned to their roots with a kit based on the first ever kit worn by St. Mary's Young Men's Association.

For next season - the club's 125th anniversary - they will be playing in a white shirt with a diagonal red sash from right shoulder.

The shorts will be plain white and the socks will be black.

The original St. Mary's YMA kit from 1885 was in fact plain white shirt with a separate red sash that the players wore over the top.

St. Mary's YMA went on to eventually become the club we now know as Southampton FC.

It is the first time the club has not worn a variant of red and white stripes since a kit made by Hummel in the late 1980s.

The new kit is the second home shirt to be made by Umbro, after the club spent nine years producing kits in house.

As previously reported, the shirt will not have a sponsor across the chest.

Before the kit was unveiled, the possibility of a white shirt with a red sash was favoured by 41 per cent of Echo readers, narrowly behind the 47 per cent that voted for stripes, with just 10 per cent opting for red and white quarters, like those worn at the last ever game at The Dell, against Brighton in 2001.

The new shirt costs £40 for adults and will be worn for a year.