Town’s players will get their revenge on the 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery for last summer’s two-day army camp when the soldiers pay a visit to the club on Wednesday. Their day with the Blues is part of the preparations for Sunday’s Help for Heroes Day.

Skipper Jon Walters and defender Gareth McAuley will welcome the soldiers to Playford Road ahead of a training session with Town reserves coach Steve Foley.

Walters hopes that Foley, who joined the players for the gruelling pre-season trip to Colchester Garrison, will give them a taste of their own medicine: “It’s payback time! Hopefully Steve will make them work and then make them work some more!”

Chief executive Simon Clegg is an ambassador for Help for Heroes, the Football League’s charity of the year, and Sunday’s game against Sheffield United on Sunday will feature a number of related events. More than 800 soldiers from 16 Air Assault Brigade and 1st Battalion Royal Anglians will be at the game as guests of the club.

Prior to the match, there will be displays of a mobile field hospital, a small arms static display from the Parachute Regiment and a light artillery gun, while the Parachute Regiment Band will perform on the pitch. There will also be a flypast by an Apache helicopter.

Photo: Action Images

gtd added 18:59 - Apr 27 I have a slight feeling that a footballer's idea of an intense session is what the Royal Horse Artillery would do for their warm-up...
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itfc1981 added 19:54 - Apr 27 can we we use the 800 troops against Norwich next season?
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Tractor_Thief added 08:56 - Apr 28 Im not sure if the RHA will be used to running between cones and working on the offside trap? Could work though? :O)
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Bergholtblue added 10:17 - Apr 28 I don't know about the 800 troops, but I could find a use for the light artillery gun.
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Brockleyblue added 20:45 - Apr 30 At the risk of sounding a lily-livered metropolitan metrosexual I feel rather uncomfortable about this. More than happy for the 800 troops to come to the game, respect the difficult dangerous job they do etc. etc. But frankly the last thing I want to see when going to a football match is a crude display of military hardware. I know Keane and ex-army boy Clegg want to toughen up Town's image a bit, but this is feckin' ridiculous, and is, in my opinion, a slightly grotesque romanticisation of warfare to be putting on in front of so many children. Couldn't they have combined Clegg's and Keane's charities, so that the troops get a deserved day out at the game but the fans get to applaud the guide dogs and their trainers on the pitch before the game instead of having to sit through small arms, light artillery and an Apache helicopter fly-past, I mean for f's sake !!! Really am extremely unhappy about this event. ITFC, shame on you. What next? A Portman Road summer arms fair as support act for the concert by Pink this summer?

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