BRAINTREE Town chairman Lee Harding is hoping some of the club’s successful old boys can help boost the current team’s fortunes with a festive fundraising game next week.

The years are set to be rolled back for Iron supporters on Friday, December 29 when a Braintree Champions side will face a Braintree Legends team at the IronmongeryDirect Stadium.

A host of popular players from the Braintree team that won the Ryman League premier division in 2006 are coming back to don Iron colours once again for a special game (kick-off 6.30pm).

Players expected to play include Nick Morgan, Louis Riddle, James Hawes, Eugene Ofori, Paul Lorraine, Robbie Martin, Billy Burgess, Brad Quinton, Andy Porter, Chris Piper, Lennie Piper, Bertie Brayley, James Baker, Michael Shinn and Ian Cousins.

The game is the first event set up by the Iron 12th Man initiative as a way of boosting manager Brad Quinton’s first-team playing budget and Harding hopes fans get behind it.

Harding said: “We have seen some good football this season and it’s been very entertaining, but I was hoping for some better crowds.

“I was hoping for crowds in the five to six hundreds rather than the three to four that we have seen and that has impacted on resources.

“It doesn’t make it easy to slacken the belt when it comes to being able to give Brad a bit more in his playing budget.

“So we have set up the Iron 12th Man initiative, which is a fundraising thing this year and one that we may make fixed in the future that could give scope for an extra player in the first-team squad.

“Success on the pitch does tend to be linked to the playing budget and the resources available so we want to help Brad as much as we can and we’ve made the ground available for this special game.”

Admission to the night is free, but donations for the Iron’s Twelfth Man initiative can be made and there has also been an auction for fans to be involved on the pitch as part of the special action.