Town academy sponsorship manager Simon Milton is delighted that the Blues’ first team squad and boss Mick McCarthy and his assistant Terry Connor have all become Academy Friends, pledging £10 a month to the Academy Association.
Town launched the Association earlier in the season in order to raise £500,000 a year as the Blues’ youth set-up looks to take on Category One status for the 2014/15 campaign. Currently the total stands at more than £100,000.
Milton told TWTD: "Alan Lee was the driving force behind it. We sat down and talked when he came back about the change in the academy and the fundraising side and one day he came in with his form and said ‘I’m going to do my bit’. He was the first player to sign up.
"And then he said he might mention it to the rest of the players and I think it was better coming from him than me going into the dressing room and saying ‘Right lads, you should all do this’. It came from within, which was really good.
"He spoke to a couple of them and they said yes and then they started doing it en masse, and then TC and the gaffer as well. It’s a really nice thing for them to do.”
TWTD recently signed up for the Academy Association’s Ramsey Package aimed at businesses and is running a competition in which those signing up as Academy Friends can watch a game from the directors’ box along as a guest of former midfielder Milton.
Also amongst those to sign up to the Association recently were Blues-supporting darts stars Kevin Painter and Keith Deller, who will be holding a darts night at Greshams in Tuddenham Road on Tuesday 18th February, full details nearer the time.