Weekly Bulletin

WEEKLY BULLETIN – 22ND JULY

22

FIXTURES

  • Saturday 23rd July Away to Stotfold Friendly kick-off 3.00pm.
  • Tuesday 26th July Home to Watford Under 23’s kick-off 7.30pm. Tickets must be purchased online. Prices are adults £8, concessions £5, teenagers £2, under13’s £1, over 80’s free.

MANAGER’S NOTES WITH MARK BURKE

TRAINING
Last Saturday we had a morning training session ahead of a behind closed doors training game with Baldock. I would like to thank Baldock manager Dave McAdam for bringing a team to the Arena. We played 3 20 minute periods and won 5-0.

On Monday despite the hot temperatures we had another training session. We were able to walk through patterns of play and work on set pieces ahead of the Boreham Wood game.

BOREHAM WOOD
We faced this tough fixture with Boreham Wood with a mini injury crisis and with two players away on holiday. The injury list included Steve Gleeson, Malachi Black, Stan Georgiou, Steve Cawley and Josh Coldicott-Stevens, while jack Green and Finley Wilkinson were on holiday. George Devine was returning from injury and only played a limited amount of time.

I was really pleased that the team had taken on board the instructions from the Monday session. We looked very organised and difficult to break down despite missing so many players. Unfortunately one fatal mistake led to the opening goal and you would not expect a top National League side to miss such an opportunity.

Overall I was happy with the performance. We defended well and created chances against a top non-league side.

STOTFOLD/WATFORD UNDER 23’S
We make the short journey to meet Stotfold on Saturday and it will be good to meet up with Brett Donnelly who had such a good first season as Stotfold manager. This game will be different to the previous friendlies as we will be expected to have more possession than against Luton, Stevenage and Boreham Wood.

The Watford game is again a different challenge. Their side will be full of young fit and hungry players who will be anxious to impress their coaches.

MARK BURKE

PLAYER NEWS

  • Josh Coldicott-Stevens has had his foot operation and his recovery period is expected to be six weeks.
  • Alex Brown has had to move because of increased work commitments. He does not feel he will be able to give the necessary time and application for this level and has signed for Soham. However he will sign for Hitchin under dual registration so he could help out in any emergency.
  • Rio Dasilva and Jonny Allotey have both signed for the season. These are two young players who have already shown great promise and will only improve.
  • Jack Morrell has also signed. He is the grandson of former management committee member John Morrell. He is either a left back or central defender and has played at Stevenage, Gillingham and East Thurrock and showed great promise in his debut against Boreham Wood.

ACADEMY UPDATE BY MICHAEL JONES

First Team Involvement
On Wednesday 20th July Academy graduate Kye Tearle and current Academy player Callum Kane were involved with the first team for their preseason friendly at Home to Borehamwood. Kye has been an established player within the first team squad for a few seasons now, having progressed from the Academy. Callum however is new to the first team set up, having impressed in the past few seasons with the Academy which has seen him progress on to MK Dons Academy as well as playing senior football for Baldock Town.

Applications
If you are interested in being a part of the Academy for the 22-23 season you can still register your interest using this link – https://www.northhertsarena.co.uk/next-trial-dates

FA YOUTH CUP
The extra preliminary round game with Godmanchester Rovers has been confirmed to take place at Top Field on Wednesday 17th August kick-off 7.45pm.

NEW GATES FOR TOP FIELD BY KATE DELLER
We are so proud to unveil our beautiful new gates to Top Field Stadium. These have been fabricated by local firm CMF Bespoke Metalwork and Glass to our specification and powder coated in our green colours.

We have a group of volunteers to thank for enabling this to happen:-

Roger Berry who each season runs the sponsorship scheme to raise funds; so all of you who have either sponsored a player to score, or Charlie to keep a clean sheet just to name a couple, we thank you.

Steve Maxted who runs the prediction league– a big thank you to him and all you prediction leaguers for contributing.

Chris Newbold, who sells programmes and other football paraphernalia on e bay to raise funds for the club– thank you!

All 3 of these volunteers wanted the funds they tirelessly raise to go to something specific and tangible and knowing that the gates needed replacing felt that this would be a great investment.

We are thrilled with them and we hope you are too.

MERCHANDISE NEWS BY PAUL SPRAGUE

New Away Shirt
We are very excited to finally be able to share with you our new away shirt from Hummel. The new design continues the theme of last seasons away colours and features the black and white version of the club badge. See our social media channels for images of the new shirt fabulously modelled by Stan Georgiou!

Replica shirts will be available to purchase both online and at the Top Field Club Shop from Tuesday 26th July at 18.00. Adult shirts are priced at £40 whilst Junior Shirts are £32.

Also special thanks to KC Sports for all the work over the last few weeks getting not only the first team home, away and training kits available but also preparing a large number of merchandise items for the club shop.

BY ROY IZZARD