IPSWICH Town players have scrapped their Christmas party plans as a mark of respect to the five murder victims.On-loan midfielder Simon Walton said: “We have cancelled the party this weekend.

IPSWICH Town players have scrapped their Christmas party plans as a mark of respect to the five murder victims.

On-loan midfielder Simon Walton said: “We have cancelled the party this weekend. We felt it was the right thing to do in the circumstances.

“Everything is overshadowed by the tragic events. What's a party, or even a game of football, when there are people out there being murdered?”

Walton, 19, is on loan from Charlton and was previously with home-town club Leeds, today's visitors to Portman Road.

He said: “I'm not from round here but I've been in the town for the past four months and got to know it, and like it a lot, in that time.

“You don't associate this sort of thing with a town like Ipswich and I really can't get my head round it.

“As far as the people at the club are concerned, it has hit everybody really hard. It has knocked us all for six.”

Ex-Leeds star Walton is too young to remember the Yorkshire Ripper's reign of terror as he was born in 1987, six years after Peter Sutcliffe received 13 life sentences for his killing spree in the late 70s.

But he added: “I'm from Yorkshire and I'm aware of it all but the last thing you expect in this part of the country is anything like that.”