Following on from Saturday's match against Forest Green Rovers, the club would like to address the issues concerning access for our Season Ticket holders.
In the weeks leading up to the game, the club spent time communicating with our Season Ticket holders in order to confirm their access requirements for the first game of the season.
During the week of the game, testing was carried out on season cards, paper tickets and e-tickets to ensure our gates and control points were ready for the return of fans.
Ahead of the game, the club was confident that we would get everyone into the ground and into their new areas, where required. On the day of the game, this was unfortunately not the case.
Following a full inquiry by the club, which concluded yesterday with a meeting of our ticketing partner and our access control partner, we are now aware that an element of the setup on the turnstiles and season cards was not carried out, which led to a number of people having to queue at the ticket office to get a paper ticket.
We were disappointed to learn that such a task was not carried out, and it left the club unable to defend itself from ticketing errors across all turnstiles, leading to the queues at the ticket office.
Our ticketing and access control partners are working on the data for our Season Ticket holders to make sure that we are ready for the Sky Bet League One game with Oxford United next weekend. This will include all parties carrying out a site visit during the week of the game to test tickets, turnstiles and scanners.
We have had assurances that we will not see a repeat of the issues that occurred before the last game. We'd also like to apologise for any inconvenience caused on the day and express our thanks to supporters for their patience and assistance.
However, we would also like to remind fans that verbal abuse and online abuse of club staff members will not be tolerated and will be dealt with by the club. Our staff are here to help you and deliver the best matchday experience possible.
We would like to thank our fans who were asked to move ahead of last weekend's game; the Safety Advisory Group was happy that we demonstrated the reduction in numbers in the Thatchers terrace.
We still ask that fans respect the yellow areas in the gangways and at the back of terrace areas, for the safety of all fans inside the stadium. If we continue to do this, we can ensure that our capacities are increased, allowing more fans back to The Mem, and enjoy the game from the areas of the ground that they have done previously.