FIXTURES
Saturday 24th July 2021 – 3pm // Leighton Town // Friendly // Away
Tuesday 27th July 2021 – 19:45pm  // Beaconsfield Town // Friendly // Home

Tickets for the Beaconsfield game are on sale. Tickets are also available for the Bedford Town friendly on Tuesday 3rd August.
Click here to purchase.

PITSTONE AND IVINGHOE
We sent a strong squad to Pitstone on Thursday and came home with a 6-2 victory after an entertaining game. Scorers were Max Ryan 2, Henry Snee 2, Callum Stead and Steve Cawley. Jack Green, Daniel Akubine, Ben Walster and Lewis Barker also featured. Pitstone are a very friendly club and we were made very welcome to enjoy their facilities.

GROUND UPDATE
On Wednesday construction work started on the new Fishponds Road terracing. The work will take up to three weeks to complete but a good start has already been made. There are photos on the web site to show how metal has now replaced wood at Top Field.

For Tuesday’s game and probably for the Bedford game the Fishponds Road end will not be open for spectators but the work will be completed in time for our first league game against Nuneaton.

MANAGER’S NOTES WITH MARK BURKE

HARPENDEN
It was an extremely hot day and we had a very good workout. We tried to play football on the ground and to play out from the back. I was very pleased with the fitness levels and the performance. We are ensuring players get as many minutes as possible so they can build up to be ready for August 14th. It was pleasing to score four goals and keep a clean sheet. Overall it was a very professional performance and continued the improvement from previous games. Harpenden proved excellent hosts.

TUESDAY TRAINING
On Tuesday we trained on Top Field and were able to work on team shape and set pieces.

PITSTONE AND IVINGHOE
On Thursday we split in to two groups. The players who had played the most minutes so far trained at the Arena under Michael Jones and Damon Lathrope together with our new goalkeeping coach John Albon who has joined us from Brightlingsea. I would like to officially welcome John to the management team.

Myself, Adam Parker and Josh Bickerstaff took the rest of the squad to Pitstone. It was a good game and it meant I was able to give more game time to those players who have not featured regularly so far together with the chance to play some triallists.

The performance reflected the stage that the players were at in their preparations so far as we lacked intensity and were quite rusty but this was to be expected and was the reason why we played the game. It was good to see Steve Cawley play his first minutes of the season. I would like to thank Pitstone and Ivinghoe for their hospitality.

CANARY CLUB / CANARY KITCHEN
After Covid-19 isolation issues the Canary Club and Canary Kitchen are both now fully open again, so please make use of these excellent facilities.

MERCHANDISE
Please remember merchandise can only be bought online. Please visit our website to see what items are on offer.

Due to a positive Covid-19 test, our teamwear suppliers have had to briefly close. This will unfortunately cause a delay in the finishing and dispatch of our commemorative away shirts. We now aim to deliver these week commencing 16th August. Apologies for the delay but hopefully you’ll accept this is a little out of our hands.

HTFC RADIO
HTFC Radio will be bringing live commentary from Leighton Town tomorrow. Tune in live on htfc.radio12345.com.

ACADEMY UPDATE
Saturday 17th July we had three players involved in the team for the 4-0 win away to Harpenden Town FC. Kye Tearle and Stan Georgiou both started the game while Marlow Gough was a substitute in the second half.

All three players have been excellent every time they have been involved with the first team and all staff are really pleased with how they have been performing in training and games.

We are also in the final stages of our preparation for our pre-season that’s due to start in August before the season starts in September.

BY ROY IZZARD