Former England World Cup midfield player Chris Waddle will be a star attraction when he returns to Valley Parade tomorrow.

Waddle has been recruited by another former City favourite John Hendrie to play in his invitation XI against Bradford City's promotion winning team.

The match has been arranged so that supporters can salute City's achievement in winning promotion to the Premiership.

And after the game the club will be presented with a silver salver in honour of their achievement.

The players will receive individual medals for finishing runners-up in the First Division.

The presentations will take place on a podium in the centre of the pitch so that everyone can have a good view of the ceremony.

Waddle, who is now on Sheffield Wednesday's coaching staff, spent six months at Valley Parade during the 1996-7 season. He left behind a host of wonderful memories, including a spectacular goal in City's 3-2 win at Everton in the FA Cup fourth round.

Hendrie is trying to bring together a team of former City players and has included himself in the side along with goalkeeper Aiden Davison, Lee Sinnott, Chris Wilder, Greg Abbott, Terry Yorath and Mark Ellis.

He is also hoping that striker Bobby Campbell will be able to play some part in the game.

Tommy Wright and City's Football in the Community Officer Ian Ormondroyd will be present but neither of them is fit to play.

Hendrie tried to recruit Middlesbrough's Australian keeper Mark Schwarzer, but his manager Bryan Robson would not release him because they have a Premiership match on Sunday.

City report a brisk sale of tickets for the match and chairman Geoffrey Richmond said: "I think there will be more than 10,000 present. We are hoping as many supporters as possible will come along and support the team."

Admission to the Ciba and Sunwin stands will be £10 with £5 concessions while a family ticket is available for one adult and one junior, priced at £10. Tickets for the Kop will cost £5 with £2 concessions.

Meanwhile, City are cashing in on their promotion triumph. They have received a £25,000 prize from the Football League for finishing as runners-up in the First Division, £25,000 from shirt sponsors JCT 600 and £100,000 from kit suppliers Asics (UK) Ltd.

The club have also received hundreds of messages of congratulations following their promotion achievement.

Richmond said: "We had 250 e-mails and hundreds of letters and calls in the past two days. Goodwill messages are coming in from all over the world."

The volume of calls has posed problems for staff at Valley Parade.

The telephone lines have been jammed with well-wishers and at times members of the staff have been unable to get outside lines to make important business calls.

As a result they have been unable to carry out some of their normal pre-match business.

Sales and marketing manager Chris Gilliver said: "It has been frantic."

And she issued a plea to fans and businesses wishing to use the banqueting suite before tomorrow's match to fax or ring the club to order their places.

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