BRAINTREE Town chairman Lee Harding admitted to being surprised as fans flocked to the Ironmongery Direct Stadium to meet new manager Brad Quinton at the club’s open day.

It was the first chance for the Iron faithful to meet their new manager face-to-face and hear directly from the former fans’ favourite player about his plans for their team.

Harding said he was expecting a few to come along, but was pleased that more than 150 packed into the Cressing Road clubhouse to chat with Quinton and take advantage of discounted season ticket prices.

“It was a good day for us at the open day,” said Harding.

“When I spoke to Bradley in the run-up to it and we were wondering how many people would come along, we thought it would be great to get 20 or 30 come down, but we had an event where people have given up their spare time and we had more than 150 of them.

“That was tremendous and we were delighted with that.

“It’s a small step, but it was great to see people and we had a lot of people wanting to secure their season tickets, which is really good.

“It was a good day, but in some respects, convincing supporters that we’re going to have a better season is the easy part of the job and the real hard work starts when we get on the training pitch and into the pre-season games.

“That’s when we have to start performing.

“However, I’m sure Brad will make sure that our new signings are hungry and ready.

“He understands how this club works as he was part of the process of making it tick for more than ten years (as a player).

“He knows how it works here, but we all have some work to do because it wasn’t good enough last year and we got relegated.

“That wasn’t just over one or two games, it was over the course of a season.

“We deserved what happened to us and we have to learn the lessons from it.

“There is hard work to be done, but we are moving in the right direction.”

Quinton was also glad to get the chance to meet plenty of the fans as he continues preparations for his first season in charge.

He added: “It was lovely to be back at the club and to see a lot of fans there.

“There were some old faces there cheering me on and showing what this club means to them all.

“We had some good players there as well; it was a chance to talk to them and things are looking good.”