Alan Curbishley, Robert Green and James Tomkins have all taken part in a disabled fans' forum at the Boleyn Ground.
The audience was made up of disabled and visually impaired season ticket holders and members, with all watching having the opportunity to tour the dressing rooms and pitchside before gathering in the Castle Suite. Ticket office manager Steve Kitcher compered the evening and was grateful to all involved for a successful night. He said: "This was the second such event this season after a previous forum back in September. We are very grateful to the players and the manager for taking part and hope everyone who came along enjoyed the experience."
Those present asked about ticket allocation, the problems faced at away matches and issues over scheduling. Naturally football talk dominated, however, with the manager happy to field frank questions from fans about all aspects of the club. In looking to next season, Curbishley talked about the increased options at his disposal as he looks to build on this season's consolidation. "I know it will be better offensively and more exciting for everybody," he said, in view of the return of key men including Kieron Dyer and Craig Bellamy and more experience likely for youngsters such as Freddie Sears
Green was particularly in the spotlight with many present telling the goalkeeper of their belief that he was England's No1 while he also talked about his forthcoming charity climb. When asked to reflect on how he was enjoying life at the club, he said it has been "a wonderful time here". Looking to the future, he added: "The vision that the new board, the chairman and the chief executive have for the club is to be up there with the best of them. I share that vision with them and I want to be a part of it with West Ham.
"Everyone at the club from the top to the bottom has got the vision in mind. It is about taking things step by step and, as frustrating as this season has been, it is still a step in the right direction. Come 12 months ago, everyone would have given everything they could to be in the position we are in now. In another 12 months, if we take as big a step as we have done in the past 12 months - we are going to be looking a lot further upwards. That is what I want to be part of."
Tomkins, who revealed he was a striker and even winger in his younger years and a fan of Zinedine Zidane, was quizzed about his pride at coming through the youth academy and spoke about his hopes of having a long and successful career. "My first objective is to play regularly for the first team. I am West Ham through and through. I have been here since I was eight years old. My family background are all West Ham and I don't see myself anywhere else."
The 19-year-old centre-back had a couple of names for supporters wondering who would be next to follow him, Jack Collison and Freddie Sears into the first-team picture. "There are a few coming through. The next one might well be Junior Stanislas. He scoring a lot of goals in the youth team and playing in the reserves already. He is going to be impressive while Jordan Spence is doing very well and is captaining England at youth level."
Among those watching for the two-hour event last Thursday was supporter Paul Reynolds and he was pleased with the chance to get up close to the players and manager - describing it as a "pleasant evening, enjoyed by all" and that he was "looking forward to the next one already". He added: "I would like to say what a good Idea the disabled forums are, the disabled fans get to meet the players and manager and get their questions answered in a face to face forum which is normally not available to us."
The criteria for our disabled supporters is that the supporter must be claiming Disabled Living Allowance at the high rate of mobility. Should you have any suggestions or comments concerning either the club's facilities or procedures for applying for away match tickets, please email [email protected]