Doncaster Rovers Belles to wear special poppy kit to mark Remembrance Sunday

The Belles are due to host Bedworth United in the FA Women’s National League Division One Midlands at Rossington Main on Sunday in a 2pm kick-off.

And they will wear shirts with their usual red hoops replaced by bands of poppies, plus the words ‘Each one was someone’s son’ on the back.

These shirts will then be auctioned off on eBay with all proceeds going to the Royal British Legion.

The concept is the mastermind of Belles chief executive Russ Green who said: “We’ve noticed that everybody wears a poppy on the shirt in some way, but nobody really benefits apart from the awareness, so we thought it would be a great idea to create this one-off shirt.

“We’ve changed the hoops to poppies and we’re planning to auction them off and raise money for the Royal British Legion after the game with all funds going to them, and it’s good we can do that from a women’s perspective too.

“I did something similar during my time at Hartlepool and managed to raise almost £70,000 over 10 years, and I hope we can do something like that here.

“The local Legion branch are really excited to be a part of it, and we want to make it an annual event for them.”

The club will hold a collection for the Royal British Legion on the gate at Oxford Street on Sunday with a minute’s silence to mark the occasion.

And Green hopes women’s football will embrace Remembrance Day more in the future.

“No-one has ever done a dedicated female Remembrance Day before and this is just the start of what we think is a great initiative for women’s football,” he said.

“We’ll also have a woman flag-bearer and someone to lay a wreath before the game.

“Everything is female-orientated for the game.

“We’ve added the touch on the bottom of the shirt with a quote saying ‘Each one was someone’s son’, we really want to pay homage to women and mothers of those in the armed forces.

“It’s so obvious for us to do it, women were a massive part of the war as well, and for myself coming into women’s football it’s made me more aware too, and we want them to be a big part of it.”