I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the Club's supporters who have renewed their season tickets for 2009/10 - and of course our new purchasers.

As happens every year, we had massive volumes of applications in the run up to the early bird deadline day and our ticket office staff are still processing applications. It can take ten working days or so to process all the applications so hopefully we will be in a position to update supporters on the uptake of tickets next week.

Some of the media coverage recently regarding season ticket sales has been a little misleading, with a headline suggesting that we had sold just 7,000 tickets before the early bird deadline. While the article correctly went on to explain that this was the number of processed applications to date rather than the number of applications received, the headline suggested otherwise.

There have also been a few miscalculations recently in the local media in terms of the decline in attendances at Portman Road. In one report it was claimed we had lost 20% of supporters in three years, followed up a few days later by the suggestion that we had dropped by 25%!

Using the same attendance figures quoted in the first article, attendances are actually down 16%. And if the correct three year numbers are used (ie taking the last three seasons, including this current one and comparing 2008/9 attendances to date with those of 2006/7), the drop in attendances is 9.4% (and will probably be under 8% by the end of the season). Still disappointing but nowhere near the claimed 25%. A significant decline in away supporters visiting Portman Road has accounted for a good proportion of this drop - and this is reflected at many other grounds around the country.

As is bound to happen in the media given the fact that we are local rivals, much is made of our ticket price structure compared to Norwich's and again, there have been a few misleading figures being reported. It's been claimed that comparable adult season tickets at Portman Road are £50 more than at Carrow Road. Using both clubs' early bird prices (the vast majority of both sets of supporters buying before these dates) the price differential for an adult seat renewal behind a goal (lower tier) is actually £2 or £18 cheaper at Norwich (the cheaper price being in a family area), with the differential for new purchasers being just £4.

In general our attendances at Portman Road stand up very well against the rest of the Championship and the 28,000 we hope to get for today's game will be among the highest attendances in the Championship this season.

Finally, I'd like to welcome the supporters, directors and players of Norwich to Portman Road this afternoon. I'm sure it will be another cracking derby. Enjoy the game.