WEEKLY BULLETIN – 26TH NOV
FIXTURES
- Saturday 27th November – Away to Barwell – League – kick-off 3.00pm. Coach leaves at 11.00am.
- There is no midweek game.
MANAGER’S NOTES WITH MARK BURKE
ALVECHURCH
Whilst I was very disappointed that we lost I can take some positives from the Alvechurch game. There were a number of good individual performances and this bodes well for the future. It was yet another case of us dominating the match but being punished when the opposition take their chance. Alvechurch only had two attempts and scored one, whereas we hit the post and the bar and had a couple of one on ones and had other good chances.
You have to give credit to Alvechurch who defended for their lives and I took some comfort from their manager who said we were the better team and they had performed a smash and grab raid. Also to put things in perspective Alvechurch went to Peterborough Sports on Tuesday and came away with the same scoreline proving they are a good side and in sight of the play-offs.
TRING
This Herts Senior Cup game was a potential banana skin for us. We were expected to win and the pitch was not conducive to our style of play. Because of the pitch we were forced to resort to more basic football. We took the lead in the first ten minutes but struggled with the conditions for the next 25 minutes. We scored again just before half time and it was great to see Steve Cawley get off the mark for the season.
The second half was a bit of a non event but I was pleased we finished with a flourish and scored two late goals. I am sure the four goal scorers will gain added confidence going in to the Barwell game on Saturday.
BARWELL
We played Barwell earlier in the season and in a very entertaining game we came out on top 3-2 with a late winner. I would happily take a repeat performance and the conditions will be the complete opposite to Tring as Barwell have a new 3G pitch. This should allow us to play football and we will look for a positive result.
EX CANARIES SPONSOR TRING GAME
Two ex-Canaries sponsored the Tring game in Michael Eldridge and Ray Brimson. Eldridge played 65 games for us between 1979 and 1981 and I had a chat to him at the game. He still looks out for our results every week and said how much he enjoyed his time at Hitchin. Unfortunately Brimson who played 208 games between 1976 and 1980 could not be at the game.
WEBSITE ADMIN REQUIRED BY STEW CURTIS
After 4-5 years, I’ve recently made the decision to step-away from volunteering with Hitchin Town FC for a short period. This is mainly down to my better half expecting our second little one in March, coupled with a new house renovation we’ll be taking on from January – so unfortunately HTFC has dropped down the priority list a little, for now.
This does however create a requirement for a new administrator for the Hitchin Town FC website. In terms of hours/week – this equates to very little – perhaps one hour a week tops, which involves adding the bulletin sent over by Roy each Friday, plus the addition of Pipeman’s match reports and updates to the fixtures/results page.
There are other page update requirements but these are very few and far between, which I can still assist with as each requirement arises.
I have been creating some training videos for each task, which is really easy to complete, it’s merely just a time issue for me I’m afraid. We use a platform called WordPress, but the adding of content is basically like using Word and is a very straightforward interface.
The plan is to stay away at the end of 2021, so if anyone should be interested in taking this on, please email webmaster@hitchintownfc.club. Thank you.
CANARY CLUB EVENTS & VOLUNTEER UPDATES BY KATE DELLER
LUTON TOWN UNDER 23’S AT TOP FIELD
Luton Town Under 23s will be taking on a team from the combined UK Armed Forces in a friendly game on Tuesday 30th November kick off 1pm. Tickets are on sale on our website – Adults £4, Concessions £2, Teenagers and Under 13s £1.
Contactless ticket payments will be accepted on the gate for this game.
The game will be broadcast worldwide by BFBS who provide coverage of most forces sport.
ACADEMY UPDATE BY MICHAEL JONES
On Wednesday 25th November we travelled away in the National Youth Alliance League to Bishop Stortford FC. The squad were missing a few players due to injury and illness but this allowed us to hand debuts to Mateusz Krol, Nathan Bell and Ansu Koroma.
The game started off with us controlling possession and Bishop Stortford making it difficult for us to break them down. The game had limited chances but in the 25 minute a shot by Aarron Hector was well saved by the keeper onto the post but Flavius Drescanu was alert to beat the defenders to the ball and put us 1-0 up.
Second Half Bishop Stortford pressed a bit higher as they needed to get back into the match and this allowed us to create more chances, unfortunately like most weeks we created plenty of chances but failed to convert any of these into goals. Bishop Stortford kept fighting until the end and looked dangerous from set plays but didn’t create anything in open play to trouble Dan Weaver in goal. A very good performance to earn the 1-0 Win.
Goal: Flavius Drescanu 25m
Man of the match: Nathan Bell
Our next open training session will be Wednesday 22nd December at The Arena, Norton Road, Baldock, Hertfordshire, SG7 5AU at 4pm. To register your interest or for further information please use this link below – https://www.northhertsarena.co.uk/next-trial-dates
HTWFC UPDATE BY KARLA CHAFFEY
It’s a short update this weekend due to the County Cup fixtures being cancelled due to COVID-19 and injuries. We return to league action this weekend.
This Sunday our fixtures are, 14:00 kick off:
Division One
HTWFC XI v Bedford Ladies Development
Ickleford Sports & Recreation Club
Division Two
Watton Ladies v HTWFC Canaries
Watton Recreation Ground
Keep up to date on our Twitter with all the live scores @HitchinTownWFC or on Facebook, Hitchin Town Womens FC
We are still continuing to recruit for players for the 2021/2022 season. We train Wednesday evenings at The Arena, Norton Road, Baldock, Hertfordshire, SG7 5AU. Training starts at 20:30 and finishes at 21:30, all abilities welcome!
BY ROY IZZARD