New manager Paul Lambert met Town fans for the first time at the annual Meet the Club event which preceded the Supporters Club’s AGM in the Sir Bobby Robson Suite this evening. The 49-year-old, who was joined by assistant manager Stuart Taylor, first-team coach Matt Gill and fitness coach Jim Henry, took questions from the floor for just over half an hour before members of the club's off-field staff were also quizzed.
"That’s the first time I’ve met the supporters and I knew how big it was, I knew how the way the supporters are,” Lambert said afterwards. "We will give everything we’ve got to try and turn it around.”
He says he’s aware it’s important for a boss to make themselves available to supporters with around 140 present at this evening's meeting.
"Every manager becomes accountable, the supporters are the lifeblood of the club,” he said. "The most important people at any club are the supporters and the players.
"They come in their thousands to watch and my job is to try and give them a winning team.”
After a week of talking to the media and now fans following his appointment last Saturday, Lambert will lead a team out for the first time at Portman Road on Saturday when Preston visit.
"We’re ready for that, that’s for sure,” he insisted. "Nobody can predict the result, nobody can do that but I know 100 per cent they’ll be ready for it and we’ll do everything we can to try and win the game. It’s a tough game but we’re in a good place at the minute.”
Following Lambert’s question and answer session, MD Ian Milne was joined by other members of staff - finance director Mark Andrews, club secretary Stuart Hayton, director of sales Rosie Richardson, director of retail operations Lee Hyde, head of ticketing Donna Powell, media manager Steve Pearce and Tim Claydon from Centerplate, who provide the club’s concourse catering - to answer fans’ queries before the Supporters Club’s AGM.
You can read our live blog of the evening on the TWTD Forum.