The kick-off times of East Anglian derbies, regular rail disruption and how owner Marcus Evans goes about choosing a new manager were among the questions put to MD Ian Milne and other members of Town’s backroom team at the now annual Meet the Club event staged as part of the Supporters Club’s AGM in Legends at Portman Road on Thursday evening.
Around 50 members of the Supporters Club quizzed Milne, regulatory affairs director Sally Webb, director of sales Rosie Richardson, finance director Mark Andrews, Liz Edwards and representatives from Centerplate, the club's concourse catering provider, who had supplied complimentary pies.
Earlier, academy manager Lee O’Neill and head of player development Bryan Klug were questioned on developments at Playford Road, the latter revealing potentially the best player he has ever worked with in his long and successful career is currently making his way through the ranks.
TWTD live-blogged the event on a thread on the Forum. If you were present and want to add your thoughts, feel free.
"I thought it went well, I think there were some very good points,” Milne told TWTD afterwards. "The thing about the trains and the police, for example.
"We ought to move on, the fans don’t like the 12 o’clock kick-off. I think we should have that discussion with the police and with Sky.
"I also think in this region we are so annoyed with the [regular disruption with the] trains. We keep battering our heads against Abellio [Greater Anglia] and, yes, we will have another go.
"The worry is that we’ve become complacent about it. We keep complaining, how many times can we can complain and they don’t take any notice?
"There was a good question about how we choose the managers and genuinely answered that. It is important to get the right manager as and when that might happen.
"Good comments, constructive comments, getting to the nitty gritty about beer prices. I was very concerned that I’m being charged more in the FanZone than in the concourse bars, so I’ll take that up personally.”
There were a number of questions about Centerplate relating to Sunday’s game, however, Milne said the club hadn’t received too many comments prior to the AGM.
"It’s odd because at the Norwich match we only got four emails [relating to Centerpoint] of complaint out of 26. It looks like they all came up this evening. I’m not downgrading the comments here, but they have performed a lot better.
"It is a difficult job to get staff in when we have only 23 matches. I think they do a good job actually, at the end of the day. I don’t think people were being critical of them overall.”
Milne was disappointed that Sunday ended in a derby defeat but says the mood in the camp was positive when he spoke to some of the players earlier.
"I was talking with Mick McCarthy and we both think Norwich weren’t anything very special, despite what people say I know the players gave 120 per cent through the match," he added.
"We all have our views on team selection but I think Mick got the team selection pretty right.
"It’s important now to recover from that. I went down Playford Road today and spoke to Luke Chambers, Tommy Smith, Freddie Sears and Jordan Spence and they were all up, the morale’s all high there. We move on to the next match and the next few matches are very important.”
Manager McCarthy said earlier on Thursday that he would decide on his future in the summer, adding that him remaining with the Blues wouldn’t be a fair accompli even if he were to be offered a contract extension by owner Evans.
"It’s between those two gentlemen to discuss as and when,” Milne added.
"As it stands at the moment, Mick’s the manager and I personally have great faith in him and get on very well with him.”
Will Evans assess the situation over the course of the season and take fans’ views into account when he ultimately takes his view? "Of course they will, the fans’ views will come into it and we’ll see. But I don’t think it’s on the agenda at the moment as Mick has inferred.”
Regarding the academy, Milne added: "We mustn’t forget, I don’t like going too far back in history, but the Crystal Palace match which was fantastic with those 10 academy players.
"We mustn’t forget, OK what Marcus’s investment is doing, but what Bryan and Lee are doing, which is a fantastic job. I love it.”
Earlier, during the business element of the evening, Steve Doe was elected chair of the Supporters Club, having been caretaker since Elizabeth Edwards stepped down to become the club’s supporter liaison officer in the summer.
Irene Davey was elected secretary, Mark Ramsey the treasurer, while Paul Voller, Sandra Cuningham, Julie Cooper and Martin Swallow other the other members of the executive committee.