WEEKLY BULLETIN – 30TH AUGUST

FIXTURES

• Saturday 31st August FA Cup home to Berkhamsted kick-off 3.00pm. Below is a preview of the game—

This Saturday its a break from Southern League action as it’s time for the first match in our 2024/2025 Emirates FA Cup campaign. It’s always special to play in the FA Cup and we have been drawn at home against Berkhamsted in the first qualifying round. Whilst the league hasn’t exactly kicked off to plan the FA Cup can always bring a few surprises. Lets see as many of you as possible at Top Field supporting Brett and the team.

The information below should help you make the best out of your visit to Top Field.

Tickets
For lowest prices and quickest entry into the ground please purchase your tickets online here: https://hitchintownfc.ktckts.com/event/hit2425fac01/hitchin-town-v-berkhamsted-fa-cup

The online box office remains open until 30 minutes after kick off.
If you do still wish to buy your tickets in person, the matchday ticket office is open from 13.30-15.15 and can be accessed from the rear car park (behind the Canary Club). Once you have purchased a ticket at the Canary Club you will then need to present your ticket for entry at the Turnstiles on Fishponds Road. More details here:
https://hitchintownfc.club/admission-prices/
Turnstiles open at 14.00

Remember our flexi tickets are also available. This allows you to buy a pack of 5 adult or concession tickets at a discounted rate. You can then login to your Kaizen account and decide which league games you want to use these tickets for. You can use as many as you like per game. Buy yours here: https://hitchintownfc.ktckts.com/merchandise/hit2425flexi/flexi-ticket-202425-5-matches

As it is a cup game (and gate receipts are shared) season tickets are not valid for this match.

Parking
Unfortunately supporter parking is not available in the club car park (unless you are a registered blue badge holder and have made prior arrangements).

Food and Drink
The Canary Club bar is open from 11.00 with some of the lowest prices in Hitchin! Drinks can be taken into the ground in a reusable plastic cup. (£1 deposit required). You can exit to the bar during the match and will be re-admitted via the side gate by showing your hand-stamp. Get down early and watch the early kick off on TV before heading into the ground.

Mad Squirrel Brewery will be on hand serving draught craft beers in the ground. They will be located between the main stand and the Fishponds Road stand. They will be open as soon as the turnstiles open at 14.00 and throughout the match. We have a couple of matches left of this initial trial and then we hope to bring you news about a permanent addition later in the season.

Canary Kitchen will be open from 14.00 serving a great range of food and soft drinks including our signature HTFC Pies.

Club Shop
Get your matchday programme, team sheet, chocolate bars, sweets and HTFC merchandise from the club shop.

For full details on the facilities at Top Field see our Matchday Info page here:
https://hitchintownfc.club/matchday-info/

We look forward to welcoming another big crowd and hope everyone has a great afternoon at Top Field.

If there is a replay it will be at Berkhamsted on Tuesday 3rd September kick-off 7.45pm.

MANAGER’S NOTES BY BRETT DONNELLY
Tough week that one. Really tough. 5 games in, zero points and not even a goal last weekend. Not good enough at all. But sometimes you have to take stock of where you are and not beat yourself up. I am my own biggest critic and when things aren’t going well it lands firmly at my own door. It’s a bit new to me to be in a struggle like this. I have had it pretty much my own way in management so far so now I need to learn new skills and ways of dealing with these difficult situations. We were all at rock bottom at 5pm Monday afternoon, all the management team, players and most certainly the fans. The lads knew they didn’t perform, I knew I had made mistakes in selection and personnel. Now we have to rectify these errors and move on. I have been inundated with messages of support to outweigh the criticism. But the criticism is justified. I am a fan as well as the manager and I don’t want to see results and performances like we have done. Its personal for me as well. I will continue to work hard to get it right as I want to see the club flourish. Yes we have had the rough end of the stick since we came in. The reprieve, injuries and suspensions but they can all be used as excuses. I just ask those fans to stick with us. Get along to watch us and if we fall short of what you expect by all means voice your frustration. But when we do well let’s hear that support. In fact let’s hear your support. It makes a huge difference. Home form needs improving, I know that, we want to be able to give you something to cheer about. We will.

Against Kettering we started poorly, go 1-0 down but our response was superb. We had chances to equalise and lets be honest half time came at a good time for them. We came out strong and should have equalised early. We didn’t and we then conceded again which took all the wind out of us. We have been too easy to score against and we have had to address that. The same applied Monday at Barwell. We were poor from start to finish. It’s the lowest I have ever been. We just never got started. Some lads won’t play again and some will need building up again. The likes of Jack Dreyer, Titch, Searsy and Frankie are all new to the level. They will be good enough they just need time to settle. Dan Webb took a couple of years to settle in and look how well he did. The same goes for Lenchy, MJ and Will Wright. People forget that before Charlie Horlock came in we were 12 games without a win. We lost his first game but then got into a run of results. It takes one performance, one win to turn a season. We will get that result.

It was great to see Glees back Monday, he’s going to need to be nursed back as he didn’t have much of a pre-season. On the flip side we say goodbye to Alex Kpakpe who moves on. We should have some new faces in next week to push us on. We are constantly looking to improve the squad and we are constantly looking to improve the lads we have. At last night’s training we had a team meeting and got a few things out in the open that were needed to be spoken about. We now draw a line on the last couple of weeks. That’s right… 3 weeks!! That pretty much it. Having spoken to a few managers this week, I have heard horror stories of no win til mid November, but the team finished mid table. Another who had 3 points after 11 games but finished 9th… at this level. So I needed to not feel sorry for myself and work harder. That’s the only way out any situation. I intend to do that.

Lastly, an injury round up. It’s a bit better reading but not great.

Henry Snee will be back light training with us next week. Still a long way off but its progress.
Rio Deall should be back training next week as his knee injury seems to be healing.
Tomorrow we have 4 lads facing late fitness tests which is a worry. I won’t mention who but we will see where we are with those players and pick the side from there.

Be great to see a packed Top Field tomorrow and a noisy one. As always stick with us and thanks to all of those that reached out to me this week. It meant a lot.

Donners

THE LAST TIME WE MET AT TOP FIELD
We played Berkhamsted on December 23rd at Top Field and lost 3-1 in front of 690 supporters. Our team was –

Charlie Horlock, Bradley Bell, (Arnold Matshazi), Layne Eadie, (Ryan Sellers), Toby Syme, Dan Emovon, Kye Tearle, Kavan Cotter, Jack Snelus, Dan Idiakhoa, Isaac Galliford, (John Freeman), Finley Wilkinson, GOAL, 1-0, 29 MINUTES.
Substitutes not used- Josh Mollison, GK, Stan Georgiou.

Only Toby Symes remains at the club. In the return game we beat Berkhamsted 2-1.

RECENT RECORD IN FA CUP FIRST QUALIFYING ROUND

• 2023/24 Welwyn Garden City Home 2-1 540
• 2022/23 Heybridge Swifts Home 0-3 424
• 2021/22 Biggleswade Town Away 3-0 408
• 2020/21 Needham Market Home 3-0 410
• 2019/20 Wisbech Away 2-1 255

FA CUP PREVIEW SHOW
Tomorrow we will have a visit from Gravity Media who are the broadcast partners of the FA and produce all the content for overseas rights holders of the competition. Every season they feature selected matches in each qualifying round as part of a feature they put together as part of their show looking at the road to the first round proper. On Saturday they have chosen Hitchin v Berkhamsted. They will film general shots around the ground before kick-off, as well as post match interviews and they will film coverage during the game.

FA YOUTH CUP
On Wednesday 4th September we are at home to Dunstable Town in the FA Youth Cup preliminary round kick-off 7.45pm.

Admission prices are adults £6, concessions £4, teenagers £2, under 13’s £1 and over 80’s free. Tickets can be purchased online or you can pay on the night. Please come and support our youth team.

MERCHANDISE UPDATE
Apologies but we remain out of stock in several adult sizes for both our Home and Away replica shirts. The response has been absolutely amazing and as you can imagine it has been extremely difficult to forecast exactly what we need in each order. As it is peak time for Hope + Glory some of the orders we have placed have taken slightly longer than anticipated to arrive but we should have several deliveries of shirts between now and the end of September. So, if we are out of stock in your size please keep checking in the club shop to see if we have re-stocked yet. We will also try to provide regular updates here in the bulletin. The quickest way to secure your shirt is to purchase online:
https://hitchintownfc.ktckts.com/brand/merchandise

MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAPLAIN
At a time when divine intervention would be gratefully received it is good to receive the first article from our chaplain Maxine Howarth—

So here we are at the beginning of a new season. The slate has been wiped clean and the air is thick with hope and anticipation. All things seem possible at this point. We could win the cup (!), we could win the league, or we could be relegated. Or, in this crazy world we live in, we could be relegated and then not relegated! When people leave church on a Sunday morning, they believe the slate has been wiped clean for them by God, and each week is a whole new beginning. We learn from our mistakes, both in football and in life and hopefully, we get to make different choices next time. The challenge perhaps lies in not falling back into the same old ways and habits, but retaining the positivity and momentum of a new opportunity. Hope to see you at Top Field soon.

POTENTIAL FA CUP REPLAY AT TOP FIELD
Should Bedford draw at Royston in the FA Cup tomorrow the replay will be at Top Field on Monday 2nd September kick-off 7.45pm.

COMMUNITY UPDATE BY MARK BURKE
Hitchin Town Community Football Club

The Arena completed its sixth week of football holiday camps with first team player, Stephen Gleeson coaching being joined by Lewis Franklin.

The camps were a huge success with children aged between 5 and 14 years old attending the Arena on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9.30am to 3.30pm for the full 6 weeks of school summer holidays.

We had the following number of children attending the camps:

Week: 1 37 Week: 2 45 Week: 3 57
Week: 4 43 Week: 5 28 Week: 6 32

We also had the following feedback from a parent that was really appreciated:

‘I just wanted to thank everyone involved in running the holiday courses/clubs especially the summer ones!
My son Jamie has been coming to these clubs for a couple of years now and absolutely loves them!
Fresh & Rocker (apologies if the names are not spelt correctly) are particularly firm favourites of his and he was glad they were still there this year. The medals and of course the sweets at the end of the week are always a hit too.
So really I just wanted to provide some positive feedback as I realised I hadn’t done so and I am always one to give praise where it’s due.
Your staff have done an absolutely fabulous job of keeping the kids entertained doing the sport they love the most.

Thanks again and he’ll back again for the next lot ☺️’

Our next football camp will be in the October half term starting on Tuesday 29th October and finishing on Thursday 31st October. Individual days can be booked and everyone is welcome.

With the children returning to school we will be resuming the following 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.

ACADEMY UPDATE BY MICHAEL JONES
This week we have had enrolment for our new learners where they officially sign up to the academy.

We will now be turning our attention to the FA Youth Cup game against Dunstable Town FC on Wednesday where Josh Mollison and current first team player Lewis Franklin will lead the young team.

If you would like to be a part of the academy or for further information please register your details using this link – https://www.northhertsarena.co.uk/next-trial-dates

HTWFC UPDATE BY CALLUM ELLIS
So pre-season is over and what a development we have had. We have seen an additional nine signings. Two have stepped up from training players to become squad players. It has seen H. Moules return from dislocating her knee in December 2023. It has seen H. Watson return after the arrival of her little one. So it has been an extremely busy one. Oh we’ve also got a new manager in!

However at the beginning of pre-season, we see players train with other clubs. We often see players committing early to their teams and some leaving it to the week before the season starts. We saw two players leave the club over the weekend just before the season starts. Which is frustrating as you then have to move players around.

So kicking off their campaign first in Division Three are our Canaries.

Sunday 1st September 2024 – 14:00
HTWFC Canaries v Leighton Woodside Ladies.
St Christophers School, Letchworth Garden City.

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

BY ROY IZZARD