WEEKLY BULLETIN – 10TH NOVEMBER

FIXTURE

  • Saturday 11th November Home to Stamford League kick-off 3.00pm. Tickets must be purchased online.
  • There is no midweek fixture.

MANAGER’S NOTES WITH MARK BURKE

HALESOWEN TOWN

We returned to the Midlands 4 days after our trip to Stratford to play Halesowen Town in a top of the table clash. Halesowen are a very good team that play attractive football and were unbeaten at home in the League going into the fixture. Credit to the ground staff for getting the match on after the amount of rain we had, and the surface held up remarkably well.

However, we did make the decision that we would not be adopting our usual game of playing out from the back in the heavy conditions but rather put the ball into areas higher up the pitch for their defenders to deal with.

In employing this tactic Charlie scored a rather fortunate but welcome goal from his kick out, as the ball bounced once and skidded over the goalkeeper’s head and who was standing outside his area.

This lead at half-time boosted us and gave us something to hold onto as we started the second half. The players put their bodies on the line and defended stoutly, which saw these efforts rewarded with a second goal late on scored by John Freeman.

The drama was just beginning though, as Halesowen responded very quickly after conceding by pulling a goal back in the 80th minute to bring them within touching distance of our lead.

In injury time a controversial penalty was awarded and Charlie made a magnificent save to preserve our lead, followed by the killer goal from us to make it a 3-1 win.

Nine points from our last 3 matches is a brilliant return but we will not get carried away as there is a long way to go in the season and it just means we require 20 more points to get to 49 points which I am confident will ensure safety from relegation.

HARPENDEN TOWN

I would like to thank Micky Nathan and the officials from Harpenden Town for hosting us on Tuesday night, when we played them in a friendly fixture.

It was an excellent exercise for us, which allowed us to give players that required match minutes much needed time while young academy players and trialists had an opportunity to play at a senior level.

STAMFORD

We of course met Stamford just 6 weeks ago here at Top Field when they left victorious in our FA Trophy match winning an entertaining game 3-2, with former Canary Trey Charles scoring what turned out to be the winner.

Stamford have been competing well in the League and are in the promotion mix as it stands so we know we are going to have our hands full, especially as they have beaten us once already. However we have been on a good run of form ourselves and I am hoping that we have learnt lessons from that defeat, and we can exert some revenge.

MARK BURKE

PLAYER NEWS

  • Other than the injured Jack Snelus, Diogo Freitas-Gouveia and Lewis Barker we will have a full squad for the Stamford game.

FRIENDLY AT HARPENDEN
On Tuesday Hitchin travelled to Harpenden for a friendly on their new all weather pitch. The idea was to give a number of players much needed game time. As it turned out Mark Burke named a strong starting line-up. Josh Mollison played in goal as Charlie Horlock had a well earned evening off while Stan Georgiou, Toby Syme and Dan Emovon were the back three with Layne Eadie and Kye Tearle the wing backs, John Freeman, Isaac Galliford and Daniel Idiakhoa in midfield with Arnold Matshazi and Temi Akinbusoye as the strikers.

We played really well in the first half and led 5-0 at half time with two goals each for Matshazi and Galliford and a further strike from Freeman. In the second half five substitutes were used in Chris Khoo, Henry Silver, Bradley Bell, Nathaniel Opuku and Joel Jolly who replaced Tearle, Galliford, Eadie, Idiakhoa and Matshazi. Opuku is a triallist while Jolly is from our academy.

Harpenden scored with their first attack of the second half and it took a very good finish from 18 year old Jolly to restore the 5 goal margin as Hitchin won 6-1. Many thanks to Harpenden for hosting us and for the way they have improved their facilities.

CHARLIE HORLOCK MEDIA STAR

With his goal and penalty save Charlie Horlock became the focus of much media attention after his Halesowen heroics. Charlie is very modest and likes to avoid the spotlight not usually using social media. But after Saturday he returned to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as he realised football is a funny old game and can easily come back to bite you so if you have the most memorable game of your career you need to make the most of it. So Charlie got fully involved in the social media frenzy and he was pleased with reaction from various football podcasts which had thousands of views and comments from the goalkeeping community. Charlie said it would create great memories that he could look back on when his career is over. He was interviewed on the Non-League Show on Three Counties Radio and was featured on the Southern League website. He was featured in the Bucks Free Press ( a Wycombe newspaper) as well as the Comet and Hitchin Nub News.

Charlie had never scored before and never thought he would but he even won the Southern League Goal of the Week

Charlie said he would now leave social media again and return to his modest personality.

I did ask Charlie about the goal and he told me his kick was aimed to reach Finn Wilkinson but he hit it too straight which was just as well as it bounced over the opposition keeper and into the net! At half time manager Mark Burke said to Charlie that they had forgotten to negotiate a goal bonus. As for the penalty save Charlie said he felt confident and thought it could be his day after the goal. But as ever Charlie was more pleased that we got the three points than any personal glory.

I asked Charlie if he might try for another goal on Saturday but he thought Mark Burke would not be happy if the kick went straight through to the opposition keeper. He will be happy to step out of the limelight and return to his role of one of the best keepers in the Southern League.

A MESSAGE FROM THE LAST HITCHIN GOALKEEPER TO SCORE A GOAL
Charlie Horlock’s sensational goal at Halesowen reminded me of the previous time a Hitchin goalkeeper scored. You have to go back to 26th January 2002 when we played Enfield at Top Field in front of 343 fans in an Isthmian League game. The goalkeeper in question was James Robinson and I decided to contact James to get his memories of the goal and to see if he had a message for Charlie. I have always known James very well as he was not only a very good goalkeeper for Hitchin with 147 appearances between 1996 and 2003 but he was also an excellent cricketer playing for my club Ickleford.

James has lived and worked abroad for many years now and is currently based in Singapore. Below you can see his response to my email asking about his goal in 2002.—

‘’ Hey Roy, how’s things?

Wow 2002, that’s a while back. Of course I recall the goal, I believe it was Scott Cretton who made the effort to come and celebrate with me. Roy you will know better than me but pretty sure we conceded late on to take the shine off my goal!

Sadly no goal bonus was written into my contract either!

I continue to follow how Mark Burke has the boys playing, makes me laugh that yourself, Burkey and Adam Parker are still so fully involved and at the heart of everything at Hitchin FC.

I’ve seen the highlights of Charlie’s performance and naturally I found the penalty save more satisfying – as I’m sure he would have too! But what a performance. Scoring and saving a penalty I can’t imagine that has been replicated too many times at any recognised level of performance.

Thanks for reaching out. Always good to hear from you. Naturally having the chance to play for your hometown club was always very special, just being around the club, the players, was always special come Saturday afternoon. I look forward to hopefully catching a Canaries game when back in the Summer. ‘’

Kind regards

James

James was correct about conceding late on. He equalized in the 83rd minute but Enfield scored the winner in the 89th minute. The team that day was Robinson, Jon Bone, Nick Grime, Tim Allpress, Scott Cretton, Craig Rydeheard, David Bass, Ian Scott, Shaun Marshall, Matt Nolan and Stuart Beevor. The subs were Carl Drew, Darren Sarll and Robbie Simpson. Interestingly Robbie Simpson’s son also called Robbie has just joined our academy which shows again how ex players remain attached to our great club.

LUTON AT TOP FIELD
Tickets are now on sale online for the Luton Under 21’s game with Salford at Top Field on Tuesday 21st November kick-off 1.00pm. You will be able to pay by cash or card on the day.

COACH TICKETS ON SALE
Coach tickets are now on sale online for our next two away games at AFC Telford and Stourbridge.

ATTENDANCE UPDATE
We have moved up to 8th in the Central Division attendance table with an average of 507. There should be a bumper crowd tomorrow with the team third in the table and playing good football. Please spread the word to your friends and colleagues and ask them to come and share the Top Field match day experience.

PROGRAMME REQUEST FROM CHRIS NEWBOLD

Well I’ve learned over the years that if you don’t ask…….

Since the new Club Shop opened in September 2021, we have amazingly sold over 4800 programmes from all that we had and all that has been donated. In addition to this, I reckon I have sold over 1000 online as well to raise money for the Club. The money I have raised has bought necessary bits like hi-vis vests for our Security and Marshals and has gone to the many maintenance and minor jobs that are being done to keep our ground as best we can.

So apart from an overload of old Cambridge United programmes, our stocks are beginning to dwindle. This is a shout out for any old programmes of the following types that you would be willing to donate, or you know somebody who would be willing to donate. What we need is:

– Any old Non-League programmes from any era (but please NOT Hitchin Town Home programmes unless they are pre 1970s). Hitchin Town away programmes will be gratefully received.
– Any old League programmes from any era (except Cambridge United :mrgreen: ).

We would gratefully receive any donations on match days in the Club Shop, or please email any questions to me at tickets@hitchintownfc.club.
Thanks for any help you can give us.

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING BY PAUL SPRAGUE
Yes I know we are only just into November so sorry for mentioning this but it’s time to think about your HTFC Christmas presents.

We have a great range of items in the club shop so please call in on a matchday and have a look round or browse our online store.

We do however continue to suffer from supply issues with our range of Hummel replica kit and leisurewear. We only have one small restock of Hummel items due next week so if you have your eye on a specific item as a Christmas present please get it now.

We have added some further items this week to the clearance section and so green hoodies are now reduced.

Thanks as always for your tremendous support.

ACADEMY UPDATE BY MICHAEL JONES

Player Update
On Tuesday 7th November we had some academy players involved in the friendly against Harpenden Town FC. Special mention goes to Joel Jolly who after impressing in academy training and games in recent weeks was given the opportunity to play in this game. Not only did he give a good account of himself but he also scored a goal.

Match Update
On Wednesday 8th November we hosted YDP Allstars in the Development league.

The match started as a really good contest and there were chances created at both ends of the pitch. Midway through the half a shot from distance gave YDP the lead and they were 1-0 up at half time.

In the second half the young Canaries got off to a terrible start as they gave away a penalty which was converted to give YDP a 2-0 lead. Hitchin then started to create chances and put pressure on the YDP back line and with 10 minutes to go Govind Bains scored a free kick to make for interesting final moments. Unfortunately Hitchin could not find the equaliser as they lost the game 2-1.

HTWFC UPDATE BY KARLA CHAFFEY
Due to the weather the Firsts match was postponed again last Sunday

EB Lions hosted the Canaries due to our waterlogged pitch and sadly the Canaries picked up a 5-1 loss after taking a very early lead.

Fixtures this coming weekend:

BHWFL Cup
Hitchin Town Women FC Firsts host Bedwell Ladies FC, however the location is due to be confirmed.

BHWFL Division Two
Hitchin Town Women FC Canaries are home to Watton Ladies FC at St Christophers School, Barrington Road, Letchworth Garden City

Games are a 14:00 kick off.

We have a new website ! I am very thankful for our newest recruit James who has spent a number of hours building our site. Go check it out on www.hitchintownwomenfc.co.uk ! Keep up to date with all the news, players and opportunities to get involved.

BY ROY IZZARD