WEEKLY BULLETIN – 2ND AUG 2019

FIXTURES

Saturday 3 August away to Bedford friendly kick off 3.00pm.

Tickets for the Bedford game can be bought at a discounted price via their website. Prices are as follows-adults £5 (£7 at the turnstiles), concessions £3 (£4 at the turnstiles), 16-20 year olds £3 (£4 at the turnstiles). 10-15 year olds will pay £1 online or on the day and under 10’s have free entry.

Tuesday 6 August away to Biggleswade Friendly kick off 7:45pm.

SUPPORTERS TRUST
Our Supporters Trust are still looking for new members for the current season. All monies raised go toward Mark Burke’s playing budget and it does not matter how small or large your donation is -it will make a difference. Full details of the Supporters Trust are on our website.

STEVE MILLER
It was good to see Canary legend Steve Miller at the Arsenal game on Saturday together with his wife and son. Steve played 245 games and scored 25 goals for Hitchin in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. He was a true gentleman and despite now living in Sweden retains his affection for the Canaries. His son even took part in last week’s football course at The Arena.

KEECH HOSPICE
Before the Arsenal game a cheque for £1,000 was presented to representatives of Keech Hospice. This represented the amount raised at the recent Hitchin Town FC Charity Golf Day. Steven Albon the regional fundraiser for Keech said the event was incredibly well organised and everyone who took part had so much fun. He also said the money raised would make a real difference to their patients.

CHARITY PARTNERS
As you may know, as a Club, we have raised a great deal of money for local and national charities. These relationships have previously included Top Field bucket collections and awareness days. However, we want to change the format slightly this year, and invite local charities to apply to become community charity partners of Hitchin Town Football Club.

We are looking for two (maybe three) charities that we can select, allowing us to focus our fundraising events for the whole 2019/20 season. We hope this clear strategy will be beneficial to not only the selected organisations, but also to our generous supporters without whom it would not be possible.

Charities may apply by emailing their request with their registered charity number and some back ground into their charity to: charities@hitchintownfc.club

ARSENAL SUPPORTER THANKS HITCHIN TOWN FC
Ahead of the Arsenal game we had a request from the father of an Arsenal player. He said he wanted to bring his elderly parents to watch their grandson play but they struggled with their mobility. The club allocated a car parking space to this supporter to make entry to the ground as easy as possible and furnished him with full details to make the day go smoothly. We received the following email after the game:

”I just wanted to express my big thanks for looking after me and my parents today at the game. It really helped my parents to be able to park in the car park and everyone we met from the club was brilliant and so helpful. Hitchin Town is a great club and it was a real pleasure to come to your ground today. Thanks again. Robin Jeffcott.”

Thank you Robin for your kind words. We will always try our best to meet supporter’s needs and it is gratifying to receive emails such as yours.

MANAGER’S NOTES WITH MARK BURKE

ARSENAL XI

I had a thoroughly enjoyable day last Saturday. The game was not played at a typical pre-season pace with both teams playing with a high tempo. We adopted a pressing game and I was very happy with the outcome. There were lots of positives to come from the game including the players showing character to come back from conceding the first goal.

The playing surface was excellent and it suited the style of play we are looking to play this season. A very good crowd turned out and I hope we see them again when we begin our league season at home to Stourbridge next Saturday. Ken Gillard the Arsenal manager also enjoyed the game and considered it a good workout for his team.

TUESDAY

We turned the negative of the Eynesbury game being postponed in to a positive. Instead we had a really good training session which involved the whole squad and there was an internal practice game.

BEDFORD AND BIGGLESWADE

With the exception of Joe Gauge (Holiday) and Alex Anderson (Christening) we should have a full squad available for the Bedford game including Josh Bickerstaff who has returned from holiday. I would like to congratulate Josh who got engaged to Chantelle while on holiday.

We conclude our preparations at Biggleswade on Tuesday.

BY ROY IZZARD