Ipswich Town owner Marcus Evans has written to season ticket holders offering them a free pie and drink ahead of the home game against Nottingham Forest on Saturday, March 16.

Town have reduced matchday ticket prices for several games recently as part of manager Paul Lambert’s drive to boost attendances for his rock-bottom Championship side.

Now the club is putting on a pre-match event for season ticket holders – of which there are around 10,200.

The FanZone will open earlier for the Nottingham Forest game, with season ticket holders able to hear from manager Paul Lambert, general manager football operations Lee O’Neill and watch interviews with some notable former players.

Evans’ e-mail, which was sent this morning, reads:

Dear Supporter,

I am writing to you to let you know about an upcoming event for season ticket-holders which aims to increase the levels of communication between the club and its fans.

I appreciate the commitment you have made to the Manager, Players and the Club in its entirety this season and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your most valued support. As a token of our appreciation, I wish to invite you to attend this exclusive season ticket holder event prior to the home match against Nottingham Forest on Saturday 16th March 2019.

We hope to welcome you into the FanZone where interviews involving former players hosted by Bryan Hamilton will take place. You’ll also have the opportunity to hear from the Manager and General Manager of Football Operations, Lee O’Neill.

You’ll be served a complimentary Portman Pie and a drink. Arrival is from 11.30am for an approximate midday start. There will be entertainment including the singer songwriter, Jock Davies who penned the original ‘Singing The Blues’ song!

The FanZone will then be open to all supporters attending the match from 1.30pm onwards.

Places are available on a first come, first served basis and you can secure your place by visiting the ‘Events page’ on itfcdirect.com and logging into your account using your customer number which is featured on your season ticket.

You can claim your free ticket between Monday 25th February and Friday 8th March 2019. If for any reason you later become unable to attend please let us know as early as possible in order to satisfy demand of any potential waiting list.

If, as we expect, the event proves to be popular this will be the first event of a series that we are staging and so, if you are unsuccessful in securing your place to attend this event, there will be a future opportunity.

We hope you will join us in what promises to be an informative occasion as well as an opportunity for the Club to say thank you!

Yours sincerely,

Marcus Evans