Reds donate final tickets to troops

Gill Bath from LFC presents the ten tickets to Sergeant Andy Kirk

Sergeant Andy Kirk, who is the Merseyside military representative for Tickets for Troops and Help for Heroes charities, collected the tickets on behalf of Tickets for Troops and will make the trip down to Wembley along with nine of his colleagues, all of whom are die-hard Kopites.

Each year the club works with Tickets for Troops to recognise the efforts of our Armed Forces and the hard work they do all-year round. Last year Liverpool were able to donate over 100 tickets to servicemen and women.

And yesterday, Andy collected the precious tickets on behalf of his nine fellow-winners and explained how the charity works.

"Tickets for Troops is a national organisation and all their companies within the UK donate tickets for events. Every serving soldier - navy, army and RAF - and their families can apply online and get tickets for different types of events.

"A lot of soldiers sometimes don't feel appreciated. So it is important that the likes of Liverpool Football Club try to give things like this, so we know that the club and the soldiers feel appreciated.

"It's really important for companies like Liverpool Football club to donate tickets so we are reminded that the general public appreciate what we're doing."

Andy and his colleagues are so grateful for the chance to see Kenny Dalglish's men walk out onto the Wembley turf this Sunday, they decided to make their own generous, charitable gesture.

"We've all donated £50 each per ticket," said Andy. "So obviously that's £500 in total and we're going to split that between two of the local military charities: Help for Heroes and Minds which is based here in Liverpool and deals with mental health."

All serving members of HM Forces, and all those medically discharged from the Forces since the commencement of military action in Afghanistan in 2001 are eligible to register for tickets with Tickets for Troops.

Andy has performed nine operational tours in total. He's been posted in Bosnia and Iraq and he knows what it's like to be on the frontline. Despite being so far from home and his beloved Redmen, distance has never been an issue in terms of keeping up-to-date with on goings at the club.

"We have Sky Sports as part of our welfare package. So whenever we're not on patrol or working and that kind of stuff we're in front of the tv watching the Reds."

And Andy was suitably delighted when he got the opportunity of going to Wembley Way on February 26.

He explained: "First of all my jaw hit the floor and I started running round the office and everyone came in to see what was going on. My phone's been red-hot ever since. It was amazing."

The nine other servicemen who are joining Andy are so fanatical that they are 'covered in Liverpool tattoos' and the excitement is reaching fever pitch as the group prepares to embark on the 225 mile trip to Wembley.

"We've all got together; the flags are going to be going down and all the rest of it. Everyone's made-up. I'm travelling down Saturday and going to my brother's - he lives in Ipswich. So we're staying there overnight and then getting up early in the morning and going down to savour the atmosphere."