WEEKLY BULLETIN – 20TH SEPTEMBER

FIXTURES

• Saturday 21st September League Away to Halesowen kick-off 3.00pm. Coach leaves 10.45am.
• Tuesday 24th September League Away to Royston kick-off 7.45pm. There is no coach for this game.

LAST VISIT TO HALESOWEN
We went to Halesowen on 4th November 2023 and we won 3-1. The team was– Charlie Horlock, GOAL, 13 MINUTES, Bradley Bell, Layne Eadie, Toby Syme, Kye Tearle, Stan Georgiou, Arnold Matshazi, (Temi Akinbusoye), Steve Gleeson, Dan Idiakhoa, Isaac Galliford, (John Freeman, TWO GOALS, 78 AND 90+4 MINUTES, Finley Wilkinson, Substitutes not used – Kavan Cotter, Dan Emovon, Chris Khoo.

The game was memorable as our goalkeeper Charlie Horlock scored a goal and saved a penalty. This is how Pipeman described the goal–

Then, amazingly, Charlie Horlock, with a routine up field punt, saw, like the rest of us, the ball take a bounce and the home keeper Daniel Platt was poorly positioned, and watched as the ball entered the net without a touch from another player. So, goal scorer, Charlie Horlock, goalkeeper and captain.

MANAGER’S NOTES BY BRETT DONNELLY
You would have thought it would be a quiet 10 days with no game.. it’s been anything but!! We have been to games to look at players and to get a look at oppositions. Mick Devine does a great job scouting opposition for us. We have also had 4 sessions to work on how we want to set up and improve from our last fixture against Bishops Stortford. A game where I thought we played really well for 70 minutes and deserved at least a point against a side who just beat the league leaders of the Conference South in the FA Cup. It shows me we are moving in the right direction since the D Day that was Barwell away!

The sessions Eddie and Jonesy have put on have been superb in working on style of play and what’s required in this league to be successful. It’s clear for all the players now what we want and how we implement it. It was great to see all the boys buying in and enjoying the sessions, now it’s important we start picking up points.

Halesowen is always a hard place to go, even harder after they lost last week. But we do go up there with a bit of confidence from our last performance and off the back of the last weeks training. It’s always good to get some new faces in as well when things are tough. I love characters and we have one in Joe Chidyausiku. He’s been out the game after knee surgery and made some comebacks last year but not as he’d hoped. He is full of fun and never shuts up. He’s great around the place. I hope he offers as much on the pitch as he does off it. He’s a throwback to the old centre forwards who like to get hold of the ball and give defenders a tough time. I like those types. Hopefully Chidz can get fit and be a big part of the team going forward. We also brought in Brad Dixon-Smith. He’s only young but has lots of non league experience. Great size full of energy and delivers a great ball. The sort of attacking full back we saw not too many years ago at Top Field. I won’t mention his name but he has the same attributes as that lad I played with who went on to do rather well. He just as clever as well, as Brad finished last in last week’s quiz!!! Last in is Reon Smith on a work experience loan from Leyton Orient. Strong, quick and learning the game. We are hoping to bring him out of his shell and get him properly introduced to men’s football.

On the injury front it was good to see the physios earning their money and getting us the lads fit and raring to go.

Henry Snee has joined in full training for the last week and is set to be involved at step 5 tomorrow.
Liam Brooks is still struggling and will miss tomorrow and Royston on Tuesday. We hope to have him training again next Thursday.
Connor Vincent recently got married but is still being evaluated before we get him back training. Congrats Leanne and Connor.
Forbsey will be back in training next week after his groin strain.
Josh Keane has strained a hamstring and will miss the next couple
Jay Rolfe sustained an injury at work and will miss Saturday.

So, it is good news on the injury front. Ryan and Chloe have been so busy it’s been hard to keep up. They’ve done a great job for me.

With Saturday/Tuesday fixtures it is massively important we have lads ready and available to be involved. Royston comes hot on the heels and it’s another game where I expect us to continue our improvement.

Lastly before I go a mention to our social media guy Harry. He’s been the butt of all our jokes since the season started. He needs help with posts, he doesn’t do what we ask, but last night he finally got a video out that involved the boys. I want everyone to start seeing and learning about the characters we have in this dressing room. So Harry, well done, only taken 3 months. Keep it coming.

As always please stick with us.

Donners

ACADEMY UPDATE BY MICHAEL JONES
On Wednesday 18th September we hosted LBFA in our development league at the Home of Hitchin Town FC, Top Field.

The game started off with Hitchin dominating the ball without really creating anything that tested the opposition goalkeeper.

21 minutes in a poor defensive pass allowed an opposition player to pick up the ball and his shot from the edge of the box went into the bottom corner to give LBFA the lead.

5 minutes later the scores were level, a good through ball from William Mcneill for Josh Beedell who crossed for Carter Fenn but he had his effort cleared off of the line but William Mcneill was first to follow up and some good footwork in the box was completed with a neat finish to make the score level.

It had barely been 2 minutes and some good work from Carter Fenn out wide, who provided a cross for Josh Beedell to head home from in line with the penalty spot to give us a deserved 2-1 lead.

The scoring had settled down for 10 minutes but a long ball over the back line allowed LBFA to break through and the first shot from the cross was missed but an opposition player was first to react to make the scores level again.

The scores were not level for long and some build up play in the middle third of the pitch allowed Luke Gilbank to play a great ball in behind for Josh Beedell to race through and lob the on rushing goalkeeper. 3-2 to the young canaries.

Just before the break Lucas Knapp in goal pulled off an excellent save which he tipped onto the post after a 1v1 with an opposition player. This kept the score at 3-2 and gave the young Canaries a much deserved lead going into the break.

Second Half and Luke Gilbank, Jacob Herron and Carter Fenn were all replaced by Ty Rochester, Rushuan Cross and Dominic Hayes.

15 minutes into the second half and a run from Melison Sykaj out wide allowed substitute Ty Rochester to tap in at the back post to extend the lead further, 4-2.

It was not long and LBFA reduced the deficit after a free header from a corner, this spurred them on and from a long free kick into the box another unmarked player managed to get the ball under control and finish past Lucas Knapp in goal to make the score 4-4.

With not long left on the clock the young Canaries’ day got even worse after a direct free kick went through the wall to give LBFA a 5-4 victory.

Head Coach Stephen Gleeson had this to say “First of all I would like to thank all of the ground staff who are volunteers at this club. They have allowed us to play on such a great surface as they have made the pitch excellent to play on, they marked the pitch especially for this game and a special thanks to Steve and Marek who turned up in the morning to help set up for the game. Your help and support with our academy is always much appreciated”

“With regards to the game it was our first proper outing as a group and we did not really know what to expect, training had been very good but the last few sessions had not been at the level required so we were unsure what level of performance we would get in the match. We started off really well in the first 30 minutes and could have easily been out of sight. Unfortunately a few defensive errors have cost us a win today but we have plenty of positives to pick out and plenty of areas to improve on. I would like to pick two excellent performances today from two new players to the academy. Josh Beedell worked tremendously hard and scored two goals before being taken off and James Hobbis in the middle won plenty of headers and provided much needed energy. We now have 3 training session to work on everything in the lead up to next week’s match”

Fixture Wednesday 25th September
We are again at the Home of Hitchin Town FC, Top Field for our next league game against Varsity Nine Academy. This will be an 11am kick off.

Again I would like to thank all the ground staff and volunteers in general who make these games happen and provide such an excellent experience for our young canaries. A special thank you to Steve Barker who has agreed for our academy games to be played at Top Field this season despite the extra work he and his team will have to put in, especially next month where we could have a total of 11 home games between the first team and the academy.

If you are interested in joining the academy or for further information please use this link – https://www.northhertsarena.co.uk/next-trial-dates

Junior Canaries
Thank you to everyone who has registered for our new community project the Junior Canaries. We are delighted to welcome so many of you into the club.

If you would like to become a junior canary it is not too late to register for the first addition for our monthly newsletter which will be out at the beginning of October.

The aim of the junior canaries will be to provide children with a new monthly newsletter. This newsletter will provide lots of quizzes, competitions and prizes, as well as finding out more about the players in the Hitchin Town FC first team as well as learning more about the club we all love.

We hope this will encourage our Junior Canaries to become supporters of Hitchin Town FC for life and improve our ever growing impact in the community.

If you wish to sign up for the newsletter, please email juniorcanaries@hitchintownfc.club with the following details:

Name, Date of birth, Address, School, Club Team (if applicable), Team you support, Parent/Guardian Name, Email, Contact Number.

We look forward to welcoming you all to the Junior Canaries.

COMMUNITY UPDATE BY MARK BURKE
Hitchin Town Community Football Club

Cancer Services at Lister Hospital
Staff from the Lister Macmillan Cancer Unit are today holding an event to celebrate 10 years of the unit being open.

Hitchin Town Football Club has donated 2 match tickets as a prize for a raffle that is being held at the event, whilst the Community section has donated a pitch hire voucher to use at the Arena.

We hope Radhika Vakani and all of the staff at the Lister Macmillan Cancer Unit have a fantastic day.

Another School take on Hitchin Town FC Community Coaches
Our sports delivery in schools has widened even further as we provide sports coaches to St Mary’s Church of England (VC) Junior school in Baldock to manage the After School Club for girls’ football on a Wednesday afternoon.

The session was split into 2 groups with 20 year 3’s & 4’s participating in one group and 32 year 5’s & 6’s in another group.

1st team coach Michael Jones leads the sessions and is helped by former Hitchin goalkeeper Josh Mollison.

The Arena
We are still taking on children that wish to sign up to our coaching clinics at the Arena.

Monday evenings from 5-6pm we host a Junior Ability Counts session for children aged between 7 and 16 years old with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The course runs for 7 weeks.

Wednesday evenings from 5.30-6.30pm we host a Primary Coaching Clinic for children aged between 5 and 12 years old those that are just starting to play football and, also a specific goalkeeping course called Safe Hands for children of all ages and abilities.

HTWFC UPDATE BY CALLUM ELLIS
Results:
HTWFC Canaries 3 – 2 Goffs Oak Girls FC

Sunday 22nd September 2024 – 14:00
HTWFC v MK United
Crownhill, MK8 0AS

Welwyn United v HTWFC Canaries
King Georges V, AL7 4BP

We are still recruiting for our teams. We train Wednesday evenings at The Arena, Norton Road, Baldock, between 19:30-20:30. Get in touch today ! hello@hitchintownwomenfc.co.uk

FORTHCOMING EVENTS AT CANARY CLUB BY KATE DELLER

Two great events coming up in the Canary Club. Keith George the critically acclaimed Boy George impersonator will appear on 19th October. He is funny and has a superb voice, come and enjoy a warm night of music and laughs.

A Halloween fancy dress party will be held on 1st November. Come and let your hair down with Alison and Steve.

BY ROY IZZARD