Approximately 2,000 were printed for the second leg tie on the Karran Group's six bespoke machines, built specifically for the production of flags.

"The West Ham job was on a tight deadline and we were faced with phenomenally late lead times," said Karran Group managing director Sue Whitmore.

She added that the job could not go ahead until two weeks ago, when West Ham were confirmed in the Division One play-offs.

The Karran Group is also set to unveil a wallchart based around Euro 2004 for paper company Inveresk. The direct mail campaign will launch later this month and will target Inveresk's customers with a print run of 30,000.

The chart will incorporate cutouts of football shirts, and the A3-sized posters will present a guide to the tournament. Karran Group produced a similar wallchart for Inveresk for the 2002 World Cup.

This year, the Karran Group worked on an insert campaign for Lever Faberg's Sunsilk shampoo (PrintWeek, 25 March) and a DM drive for American Management Systems.

The Guildford-based company has held the contract to produce promotional flags for fast-food giant McDonald's for the past 25 years.