FIXTURES

  • Saturday 16 November away to Redditch League kick-off 3.00pm.
  • Monday 18 November home to Welwyn Garden City Herts Senior Cup kick-off 7.45pm.

Prices for the Welwyn game have been reduced. On the evening at the turnstiles adults will pay £6, concessions £4 and teenagers £2. Online it is even cheaper as adults will pay £5, concessions £3 and teenagers £1.

UPCOMING FIXTURES

Chris Newbold has sorted out the fixtures for the coming weeks. They are as follows:

  • Saturday 23 November home to Nuneaton League kick-off 3.00pm.
  • Tuesday 26 November away to Peterborough Sports League kick-off 7.45pm.
  • Saturday 30 November home to Barwell League kick-off 3.00pm.
  • Monday 2 December home to Lowestoft League kick-off 7.45pm.
  • Saturday 7 December away to Hednesford League kick-off 3.00pm.

PLAYER NEWS

  • We have signed Shaquille Ishmael from North Leigh. He is a winger/attacking midfielder and is in the squad for the Redditch game.
  • Alex Marsh returns to the squad for the Redditch game after being cup tied against Bedfont Sports.
  • Jack Green and Josh Bickerstaff are now fit for selection at Redditch
  • Brett Donnelly begins a three game suspension at Redditch after his red card last Saturday.
  • James Verney was injured at Bedfont and will be out for a couple of weeks.
  • Jay Dowie has started his own business and because of this has been unable to commit to training and playing. But he remains signed on for Hitchin and has agreed to help out should Mark Burke need him to play.

1980’S REUNION
On Saturday 30 November we are inviting any ex player or official who was associated with the club in the 1980’s to attend our game with Barwell. A number of ex players have already agreed to attend and if you are interested in coming along please drop me an email at roy.izzard@outlook.com.

TONY LUFF
Our former goalkeeper Tony Luff has agreed to sponsor the gloves of our two goalkeepers Charlie Horlock and Josh Mollison. Many thanks to Tony for this generous offer and he will be present at the Barwell game to present the gloves to Charlie and Josh.

HITCHIN TOWN UNDER 19’S
The academy side were beaten 2-1 by Bromley on Wednesday. Next Wednesday they are at home to Dartford kick-off 12.30pm.

HITCHIN TOWN LADIES FC WITH CALLUM ELLIS
Flitwick cancelled the game against our first team on Sunday 10th November, so as a result that gave us automatic entry into the next round of the League Cup against Herts Vipers.

Our Reserves were at home to Buntingford Ladies. The game start positively with Spang opening the scoring. Shortly after Clarke doubled Hitchin’s lead. After a scrappy clearance Clarke doubled her tally and gave Hitchin a 3-0 lead at half time. The second half kicked off and Spang doubled her tally and then rounded off her hat trick shortly afterwards.

The first team do not have a game this weekend and the reserves are at home against Harvesters with a 2:00pm kick off.

EJA NEWS WITH NICK CARR
Three of our EJA teams were in cup action in the past week with all three away to strong opposition.

The U15s failed to score in a game for the first time this season when suffering a 3-0 loss to Tring Athletic in the EJA President’s Cup on Sunday with all three of our opponents’ goals coming from set pieces that should have been defended better.

The U17s also lost away on Sunday and also by a three goal margin, this time at the hands of Biggleswade Town in the EJA League Challenge Cup with the final score 5-2 to the hosts.

Our U18s earned a very impressive 3-1 win away on Tuesday night against a strong Aveley Youth in the EJA Midweek Cup with Liam Campion opening and finishing the scoring and with a goal by Ant Nygro sandwiched in between. It was a very solid defensive performance that provided the foundations for what was a well earned and deserved team win.

Our U14s were also away, this time in a league game on Sunday at Bury Town where they came away with a 5-0 win with goals from Rafael Miles, who helped himself to a hat-trick, and further goals from Sol Campbell and Anesti Kyrio.

Our U14 and U15s are both in EJA Midweek Cup action tonight with the U14s away to Cheshunt Youth and the U15s having to suffer the delights of the M25 on a Friday evening to take on Bowers & Pitsea United.

It’s back to league action on Sunday with the U14s at home to Godmanchester Town at North Herts College, kickoff 11am. At the same time our U17s are away at Braintree Town whilst the U18s entertain top of the table St. Albans City at The Arena, Baldock with a 10:30am kickoff.

Our U15s are without a game on Sunday.

MANAGER’S NOTES WITH MARK BURKE

BEDFONT SPORTS

The two games with Bedfont Sports followed a similar pattern. We dominated possession in both games but Bedfont were very dangerous on the counter attack. Over the course of the two games their goalkeeper made some outstanding saves and it was frustrating that so often we got in to good positions but made the wrong decision with the final pass, cross or shot.

After taking the lead in the replay we had a very good ten minute spell where we passed the ball really well but were let down by bad decision making in the final third of the pitch. Credit to Bedfont who threw caution to the wind and went four up front. This caused us problems ultimately resulting in their equaliser with the last kick of normal time.

Extra time was a bit of a non event with both teams were very tired and so we went to a penalty shoot out. Despite missing his previous two penalties Ben Walster was brave enough to volunteer to take the first penalty and unfortunately their goalkeeper pulled off a save. The Bedfont goalkeeper was probably the best player over the two games. The Bedfont penalties were excellent leaving Charlie Horlock with no chance. One small positive was that we scored our other four penalties so hopefully we have now put the penalty hoodoo to rest.

I wish Bedfont the best of luck. They were very hospitable and are a well run club. We must now move on and concentrate on moving up the league table.

REDDITCH

We must approach this game in the same professional manner as we did at St Ives two weeks ago. We have again stressed to the players how important the result of this game is and it really is another six pointer.

WELWYN GARDEN CITY

I am very fond of the two county cups and have been fortunate to have won both of them in my managerial career. I will certainly be looking to progress on Monday and it is always good to have further cup games to look forward to after Christmas.

BY ROY IZZARD