Mr Sutton - responding to an appeal for new investors just a week earlier - is already a sponsor of the Mansfield Town FC shirts through his company A. Sutton Pipelines Ltd (ASPL).

Now his backing for the Derry group has inched their takeover at the Stags ever closer, a fans forum was told.

• Stags fans forum - all the news

He has joined James Derry and fellow Mansfield businessman Steve Hymas to invest £0.5 in working capital into the football club - and owner Keith Haslam is expected to complete his sale to the consortium next week.

• James Derry 'in control' at Field Mill as takeover almost complete


• VIDEO: Derry agrees Stags takeover if backers come in


• Would-be Stags owner calls on businessmen to back bid

The consortium may be joined by a fourth member who is currently in discussions with Mr Derry - and the group hopes to attract other investors, too, including fans groups in return for shares and a representative on the board of directors.

Mr Sutton (35) is a familiar face on the terraces at the Mill with his young son - and like Mr Hymas has got involved because he is passionate about his hometown football club.

After he was named at the forum as a member of the Derry consortium, he told Chad: "I am just an ordinary, loyal fan. I have been going since I was five or six and my took me.

"I am lucky enough to have had my own company for the past six years and I just want to help make sure my club survives and to do all I can to make sure we stop up.

"I know Steve (Hymas) and I have met James (Derry) on a few occasions. We don't need to make money out of the club, we just want it to survive."

Married with three children - seven-year-old twins (a boy and a girl) and a three-year-old son - and living in Mansfield, he said he decided to become more involved at the club after hearing and reading about the consortium's appeal for financial backers last week.

He added: "My heart is in the club. My kids are Mansfield mad, they like to go early to games to meet the players.

"It is the younger fans that are the future. We have got to get them back in."

And he said that it was unlikely fans would see him in the boardroom very often, adding: "I am just a normal lad, jeans and T-shirt. I want to be in the terraces, enjoying the atmosphere and showing my emotions."