WEEKLY BULLETIN – 13TH DEC

FIXTURES

  • Saturday 14 December away to Stratford League kick-off 3pm. Coach leaves at 11:15am.
  • Tuesday 17 December away to Leverstock Green Herts Senior Cup kick-off 7:45pm. There is no coach to this game.

PLAYER NEWS

  • Jack Green begins a three game suspension this Saturday following his red card at Hednesford.
  • Dan Webb and Jhai Dhillon are unlikely to be fit for the Stratford game.
  • A few players are struggling with illness or minor injuries.
  • Layne Eadie has returned to training after a long absence.

LETCHWORTH GARDEN CITY EAGLES 0-5 HITCHIN TOWN
On Monday we won the Vince Paige Trophy beating Letchworth Garden City Eagles 5-0 with goals from Jamie Jellis, Daniel Cirjan and a hat-trick from Rio Da Silva. The team was a mixture of first team players and trialists with the full line up as follows:

Charlie Horlock, Jack Green, Kai Phelan, Joe Gauge, Marcus Crowther, Josh Coldicott-Stevens, Sam King, Jamie Jellis, Henry Smee, Rio Da Silva, Lewis Rolfe. Subs: Daniel Cirjan, MJ Muyembe, Devonte Simms, Nikolay Popov, Jack McCool, Jacob Mwenda.

CHRISTMAS AT CANARY CLUB & VOLUNTEER ARMY WITH KATE DELLER
Christmas is nearly upon us and we are celebrating it this year in The Canary Club on 21st December from 7.30pm. Local band “The Hot Tub Steps” will be entertaining you all with their wide range of covers that will get even the Scrooges among you foot tapping and dancing. There will be a buffet during the evening and a 50/50 draw to help raise as much money as we can for our three Charity Partners. Please do come along and help us make it a really good old fashioned knees up to complete the year. Tickets can be purchased online or cash purchasers may pop in and see Rose or Steve in the Canary Club where they hold tickets. Ticket Home | Hitchin Town Web

I just want to say a massive thank you to The Three Alans, you know who you are. An outstanding amount of work was done on Wednesday and the Club is really grateful for the fantastic start to the Voluntary Initiative. The Garden totally clear of leaves and flooring! At this rate we really will keep on top of the jobs that add up. Well done, your cakes are in the oven ready for feeding! The Pasties will be baked next week and delivered to you at the match on the 21st December.

The next Wednesday Voluntary Army Meet will now be after Christmas on the last Wednesday in January 2020 (29th).

FA “RAINBOW LACES” CAMPAIGN AND HITCHIN ”DRAG CRAWL”
At our game against Leiston on Saturday 21st December, the Club will be showing its support for the FA’s “Rainbow Laces” campaign, which aims to draw attention of LGBT+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) inclusion in football.

A full article on this was posted on our site this morning. Click here to read this.

HITCHIN TOWN UNDER 19’S

  • The academy team drew 1-1 away to Luton Cedars last Wednesday.
  • Next Wednesday they are at home to Maidstone at the Arena kick-off 12.30pm.

HITCHIN TOWN LADIES FC WITH CALLUM ELLIS
The reserves made it four wins on the bounce as they beat division two side Woburn in the Chris Renshaw Cup. Goals from Ellen Beary and a double from April Spang put the hosts 3-0 up. Woburn scored a penalty late on but it wasn’t enough as Hitchin Ladies reserves progressed to the next round where they will face another division two side in the shape of Watton. Player of the match this week was Lauren Joyce and the player’s player was Zoë Nemeth.

EJA TEAM NEWS WITH NICK CARR
There was only one EJA team in action last weekend as the other three teams had a free week. The U15s took advantage of this and held a team bonding session at the Fit 4 OCR Obstacle Course at The Arena, Baldock.

The only game that was played saw our U14s go down 5-2 to Soham Town Rangers Youth U14. Rafael Miles and Zion Kelly scoring for our boys.

This week sees all four teams back in action with our U17s and U18s both competing in Hertfordshire FA U18 County Cup.

The U17s are hosting St. Albans City Youth U17 South at The Arena, Baldock with a 2:00 PM kick off whilst the U18s travel to Cuffley Youth U18 Blacks for a 10:30 AM kick off

Our U14s and U15s are both in league action with the U14s travelling the short distance to Stotfold for a local derby in the EJA Yellow (Cambs) Division, kick off is 10:30 AM.

The U15s host Cockfosters FC at the Arena in what is sure to be a tight game if recent history is anything to go by. Kick off is 10:30 Am at The Arena, Baldock.

ASSISTANT MANAGER NOTES WITH BRETT DONNELLY

With Mark Burke feeling unwell Brett Donnelly stands in to review the recent games.

HEDNESFORD TOWN

I thought we started slowly while Hednesford started brightly. It looked as though the departure of their manager had galvanised them and they scored an early goal helped by our sloppy defending. For a while we huffed and puffed but surprisingly the sending off of Jack Green seemed to spur us on . I thought the red card was harsh and felt the referee gave us very little all afternoon including not giving a penalty when Jhai Dhillon appeared to be fouled in the penalty area..

In the last 15 minutes of the first half we played really well and got an excellent goal from Lewis Barker. At half time we told the players to keep it tight and give nothing away. Unfortunately that all went out the window when we conceded two poor goals early in the second half. At 3-1 down and with ten men the game had been taken away from us. We conceded a fourth goal before Jamie Jellis scored a late second for us.

It is concerning to have let in seven goals in two games and we really need to tighten up. We undoubtedly missed Dan Webb on Saturday who is so influential in organising our back four.

Despite the two consecutive defeats there is no doubt the team have improved in recent weeks and we have to remain confident this improvement will continue.

LETCHWORTH GC EAGLES

This game was a useful exercise for us as we gave game time to certain squad members and were able to assess a number of trialists. We also had two eighteen year olds (Joe Gauge and Kai Phelan) playing as centre backs.

STRATFORD TOWN

We had Stratford watched against Bromsgrove and the report that came back was that they played well and were unlucky. This is obviously a very important game with Stratford below us in the table. It is very important that we defend better than in the last two games and come back with some reward.

LEVERSTOCK GREEN

We want to do well in the Herts Senior Cup and despite Leverstock Green being in a lower league we will not be taking them lightly. We will need to fully concentrate and be prepared to battle if we want to progress to the next round.

BY ROY IZZARD