Supporters are the foundation of our club and effective fan engagement is vital to maintaining the experience and community feel of our club.

It is a requirement that each Club in the EFL appoint a Supporter Liaison Officer (SLO) to formalise fan engagement processes and to strategically assist in enhancing communication between Clubs and their supporters.

I have been a Sutton United supporter myself all my life, coming to my first game at GGL at a very  young age with my dad and two elder brothers, and having been a season ticket holder since my early teens.

It is my absolute privilege to hold this position and to be able to listen and represent the views of our  fans to the Club. It is also my responsibility to feedback on work and relay information to you from the Club’s Senior Management Team. I am here to ensure that you feel included and valued, and that your views are listened to and represented.

I will keep you up to date here with goings on and information on my work here and on our website as well as on my twitter @SuttonUtd_SLO

If you have any feedback, views or ideas that you would like to share with me either about your match day experience or anything relating to the club you can contact me at: claire.loughlin@suttonunited.net or feel free to chat to me in the ground on matchdays.

On Wednesday 7 December, myself and our Chief Commercial Officer, Ed Marsh hosted our first Fans’ Forum evening in the MBA Lounge.

This was an opportunity for fans to come and express any views they had in relation to their own matchday experiences and interactions with the club. I was really pleased to see so many people there and so grateful that they all spoke openly and honestly about what they like or don’t like about their time at the club.

We talked about the development of the ground in recent years, and how much more there is to come in this space, touching upon things people would like to see in the long term, but also noting things that need to happen in the short term, like upgrades to the speakers to allow people to hear matchday announcements more clearly. We know as we grow that we need more facilities to support everyone in the ground, and these will all come in time.

ln relation to catering there were lots of suggestions of things people would like to see in an alternative to the usual offerings. All of which will be fed back to the team to allow them to see what we can do in this space. We also had lots of feedback on the offerings from our bars, and what people would like to see, and what might entice them to spend more time in them, these will all be discussed and explored.

Lots of suggestions were made about how we can enhance the Fan Zone and build on what has already been a successful venture here. Lots more games and activities geared at children and families were asked for, as well as a wider variety of drinks on offer.

We talked about the importance of everyone knowing just how valued they are as supporters of this great club, and how the little things really matter. All our volunteers and staff do an incredible job to make things happen here, and we really should take more time to celebrate each other. Something I will be looking into how we can do more of.

I’d like to thank everyone that attended and will explore all your comments with the team behind the scenes to see what we can make happen and keep you up to date on developments. I will be running another session later in the season and hope to see many more of you there.

As ever, if you have anything you want to chat about, or feedback on, do drop me a line or grab me on matchdays, I really do want to hear what you have to say and work together to make our club the best it can be.