BUSINESSMAN Brian Armstrong dug deep into his pockets to buy tickets to see Wanderers play Newcastle at the Reebok Stadium on Saturday.

He paid a whopping £500 for four tickets - and he's not even a fan of the Whites or the Geordies.

It was all in a good cause with the proceeds going to the New York Firefighters Fund to raise money for the dependents of the firemen who died in the recent atrocities in New York.

Mr Armstrong is managing director of a company called Disaster Restoration of Basildon, Essex, and he bid for the tickets, which were donated by the Wanderers players, at the Bolton and Bury Business Awards Night in the Premier Suite at the Reebok Stadium on Friday night which he attended with Bolton company One Call.

Because of the size of the donation De Vere Whites Hotel treated Mr Armstrong and his guests at the match, his wife Elizabeth and fellow director Bill Lakin and his wife Sue, to a champagne lunch before the match.

The latest bids in the Wanderers' shirt auction in aid of the New York Firefighters Fund are Dean Holdsworth £120 from Glynne Lever; Gudni Bergsson £155 from Jason York, Michael Ricketts £150 from Brandon Guffoff; Colin Hendry £60 from Paul Wild. Bids will be taken up to noon next Thursday on 01204 361268 or by e-mail to pmensforth@lancashire.newsquest.co.uk.