CARPETED with golden leaves, Eastleigh's Leigh Road Recreation Ground must have seemed a million miles away from the bloody battlefields of Iraq.

But British troops moving towards the Triangle of Death were uppermost in the thoughts of war veterans at Eastleigh.

They had gathered at the war memorial for the traditional laying of the Poppy Crosses to remember the town's heroes who never came back from the frontline.

Eastleigh mayor Councillor June Hughes laid the first cross followed by members of the Eastleigh, Chandler's Ford branch of the Royal British Legion.

Later branch chairman Norman Brown spoke of how those currently serving in Iraq were very much in their thoughts.

He said: "We are very much thinking about our lads and lasses in Iraq. They are doing our country proud and are carrying on from their forefathers.

"We hope and pray that they return home safely."

The war memorial service was conducted by the Reverend Gavin Wort, curate of Eastleigh's All Saints Church.