Hartlepool will wear a one-off home shirt in their FA Cup clash against Kettering in a bid to raise money for the Poppy Appeal. The shirt, which has thinner blue and white stripes to the current home kit, will also feature the poppy emblem on the front and back.

The first-team shirts will be signed after the game and auctioned on eBay with the funds raised being split between the British Legion and Help For Heroes.

Last season the League One club raised £5000 through a series of auctions and raffles after one-off shirts were worn in the clash with Brighton on Saturday November 8.

Chief executive Russ Green said: "This year's appeal seems more poignant perhaps with the recent news of the five British soldiers killed in Afghanistan. It seems every day we are looking at the internet or opening a newspaper and seeing another of our men losing their lives.

"This is something that, as a club, we have always been committed to supporting. We raised £5000 last year and this year we want to do better than that. The programme is something we thought of that I think is a unique idea. With the shirts, we will again be auctioning and raffling these off as we look to raise as much as we can for two extremely worthy charities."