WEEKLY BULLETIN – 17TH MARCH

FIXTURES

  • Saturday 18th March Away to Hednesford League kick-off 3.00pm. Coach leaves at 10.30am.
  • There is no midweek game

HERTS SENIOR CUP FINAL
The Herts FA have confirmed the Herts Senior Cup final will be held at Cheshunt on Wednesday 29th March kick-off 7.45pm. Details of admission prices will follow in due course.

MANAGER’S NOTES WITH MARK BURKE

I told the players last week that if they put in extra training on Monday and Thursday I would let them have a day off on Saturday when we had no league fixture. Not surprisingly they did the extra training!

LUTON TOWN UNDER 21’S

I had a very enjoyable evening on Monday. It started in the Canary Club where I greeted my first ever Hitchin Town manager Alan West who is a Luton Town legend. Alan was joined by other ex Luton players in Brian Stein, Mick Harford, Wayne Turner, Richard Harvey, Cahal McConville and Meka Nwajiobi. They were there to sign copies of the book They Played for David Pleat at Luton Town written by Phil Duffy. It was great to see them all and catch up on old times at Luton. There was a good flow of people attending and many brought other memorabilia to be signed.

As to the game it was great to see the Luton Town chairman David Wilkinson and managing director Gary Sweet in attendance. We are very proud of our close link with Luton Town.

I was very happy with our first half performance which was full of intensity, high pressing and this led to a number of opportunities being created. We did not score until just before half time and it came from a very well worked move. The second half saw me make a number of changes which not surprisingly did affect our momentum but it meant I was able to give valuable game time to the players who came on. Luton have a very useful under 21 squad and they capitalised on our loss of momentum and equalised shortly after half time.

Overall the game was a good exercise which benefitted both us and Luton. Also not only did it give me the chance to give the whole squad a run out I was also able to see the up and coming Luton players who may become loan targets for us.

HEDNESFORD

While Hednesford are at the bottom of the table I will make sure we are not complacent. I want us to finish the season strongly and pick up as many points as possible from our last seven league games. Hednesford will be fighting for their lives which makes them dangerous opponents.

MARK BURKE

PLAYER NEWS

  • We have signed Kavan Cotter and Charlie Miller who both played against Luton on Monday. Kavan has been at Wingate Finchley this season and played 35 games for us in the 2017/18 season while Charlie has been playing for Tring
  • Steve Gleeson (calf), Diogo Freitas-Gouveia (hamstring), and Stan Georgiou (ankle) are all out of the squad for Hednesford.
  • Jack Snelus and Jack Morrell are both now fully fit.
  • George Devine is playing for Cockfosters tomorrow to get more game time. He will be playing against Alfie Warman who will be playing for Potton.

MERCHANDISE UPDATE
Please visit the online club shop where you can buy a wide selection of Hitchin merchandise including replica shirts at a discounted price and the recently arrived purple bobble hats.

https://hitchintownfc.ktckts.com/brand/merchandise

ACADEMY UPDATE BY MICHAEL JONES
On Wednesday 15th March we hosted top of the league and a team who had won all their games except one, which was to us in the reverse fixture. We were coming off the back of last week’s disappointing performance.

The squad was much changed from recent weeks due to various different reason but the young Canaries started off well and put the away side on the back foot for the majority of the first half. Despite dominating large parts of the half we had to settle for 1-1 at the break.

Second half and the league leaders started off the better but despite this the we took the lead when Jack Young scored his second of the game. This spurred the away side on and it was not long before the sides were level. Into the final 10 minutes and the pressure took its toll conceding two goals meaning the final result was 4-2.

A much better performance than the previous week against better opposition. We are now looking forward to the future and want to use the remaining games of the season to continue to develop this young squad for next year and hopefully progression into the senior game.

HTWFC UPDATE BY KARLA CHAFFEY
Only the one team in action last Sunday and this is how they got on–

HTWFC Firsts 0 – 4 Stotfold Women

Fixture on Sunday 19th March 2023, 14:00 kick off
Kempston Rovers Women Fc v HTWFC Firsts

14:00 kick off

We are looking for new players to join our progressing teams. We train weekly at The Arena, Norton Road, Baldock. We train 19:00 – 20:30 each Tuesday and you have to be 16 years old or over.

We are also looking for new sponsors for the women’s set up. We are looking for sponsorship for training kits and tracksuits. If this is something you are interested in please get in touch with Callum on HTLFC.ClubSecretary@gmail.com.

BY ROY IZZARD