JAAP STAM says he knew there was a problem with the kits Reading and Stevenage were wearing before the game had even kicked off.
Royals saw off Boro 3-0 thanks to a Jon Dadi Bodvarsson hat-trick to move into the fourth round of the FA Cup.
But plenty of the post-match chat surrounded what both sides were wearing.
Royals donned their traditional blue and white hoops at the Mad Stad while the visitors used their home strip of mainly white with red trim.
More problems occurred given both shirts had white backs with red numbers, which eventually led to Reading changing to their bright orange away strip for the second half.
“I said it before the game that it was quite strange that both sides were almost wearing the same colours or identical,” said the Royals boss.
“But this was the only shirt they had and a blue one I believe and the referee wouldn’t let them play in blue, so they needed to wear the white one.
“We were wearing white as well of course so our kitman needed to go back to Hogwood to get the stuff and then we changed it.”
He added: “Our kit man made the decision to go back and get the orange kit just in case the players wanted to swap. We asked the players if they wanted to change the shirts.
“It was his own initiative to go back so it was very good! It’s not a long way to the training ground, it’s only 15 minutes.
“You could see during the game that the players were complaining about the colours because it’s difficult when you need to play a game and two teams are wearing basically
the same colours.
“If you need to make a very quick decision on the ball and from the corner of your eyes you see a white shirt and you want to pass it and then it’s the opposition and you’re giving the ball away, it leads maybe to a counter attack.
“It’s good from our players that they said it’s difficult to play. But I don’t think the ref could do a lot during the game.
“I haven’t seen anything like that before, but there’s always a first.”
