WEEKLY BULLETIN – 3RD MARCH

FIXTURES

• Saturday 4th March Home to Tamworth League kick-off 3.00pm. Tickets must be bought online.
• There is no midweek game.
• We are now playing Luton Under 21’s in a friendly at Top Field on Monday 13th March with a 7.00pm kick-off. Prices will be £6 for adults, £4 for concessions, £2 for teenagers and £1 for children. Season Ticket holders can gain free admission. If you please log in to your account on Kaizen before ‘purchasing’ your ticket and you can then access the Season Ticket option to obtain a free ticket for this game. This game is all ticket- Luton U21 games have up till now been side gate, with cash/card option – this one isn’t, because it involves our First team. Luton agreed to the game being all ticket.

MANAGER’S NOTES WITH MARK BURKE

LEISTON

We travelled to high flying Leiston on Saturday and I thought we acquitted ourselves very well. In the first half there were not too many chances but we had the better of them. I was pleased that we had kept a clean sheet at half time. In the second half we pressed hard to try and get the opening goal but then suffered a setback when Toby Syme was sent off after getting a second yellow card.

We sacrificed Finley Wilkinson and brought on Stan Georgiou and switched to a 4-2-2 formation. By keeping two forwards we tried to ensure Leiston could not pin us in our own half. I felt the players really put their bodies on the line and Charlie Horlock was in excellent form.

In the end it was a hard earned and well deserved point despite the period with ten men.

CHESHUNT

The Leiston performance and result really set us up for the Herts Senior Cup semi-final at Cheshunt. I have to say how delighted I was as we put in a thoroughly professional and hard working performance against our higher level opposition.. The win was well deserved and it is great to have a cup final to look forward to at the end of the season. It will bring out the best in the players as competition for cup final places will be intense.

One of the reasons for the two excellent results was the use of the squad and I am very happy with the personnel we have at the moment. At Cheshunt we had a gameplan which the players carried out. We wanted to be hard to break down in the first half and then push on in the second half. The introduction of fresh legs meant more energy in the last half hour and Cheshunt found this difficult to deal with.

TAMWORTH

On Saturday we welcome top of the table Tamworth to Top Field. It will mean that in out last five league games we will have played four of the top five teams in the league table which could not have been more difficult. After the success on Tuesday we are really looking forward to the Tamworth game and it would be great to have a really big crowd to get behind us.

PLAYER NEWS

• Toby Syme is suspended for the Tamworth game but is able to play for Baldock on Saturday. We thank Baldock for letting Toby play to keep his match fitness.
• Rio Dasilva will play for Stotfold on Saturday to get much needed game time and thanks to Stotfold for agreeing to this.
• Steve Gleeson trained on Thursday and will be in the squad for Tamworth.
• Josh Mollison is playing for Baldock tomorrow.
• Ciaren Jones has returned to Brackley for rehabilitation after his latest loan spell finished last Saturday. We are hopeful that when he returns to full fitness we will renew his loan.

FA ACCREDITATION
We heard this week that Hitchin Town have been accepted as a 2 star accredited club by the Football Association. This is welcome news and we will now aim to become a 3 star club in the near future.

MERCHANDISE UPDATE
Please come and visit the club shop on Saturday to see the wide range of merchandise we have on sale, including the match day programme and team sheet.

KATE DELLER
Kate has stood down from the management committee for family reasons. However she will continue to be the leader of our match day volunteers and will also carry on with her stewarding role. Kate has done so much to improve the match day experience at Hitchin and we are so pleased she is going to continue to build on what she has already achieved.

HERTS SENIOR CUP
We will learn our Herts Senior Cup final opponents next Tuesday 7th March when Berkhamsted host Watford Under 21’s in the other semi-final. As and when the Herts FA announce the date and venue of the final we will let you know.

PIPEMAN RETURNS
I am very pleased to say that Pipeman will be back for the Tamworth game. He had to miss the Cheshunt game for health reasons but did listen to the game on HTFC Radio. Having filled in for Pipeman in doing the report of the Cheshunt game I am so pleased he will be back with his own unique style of reporting—he is certainly a hard act to follow so welcome back Pipeman!

MATCHDAY MEAL SPECIAL
We are trying a Matchday Special meal in the Canary Club main hall between 1.00pm and 2.30pm for the Tamworth game.
For only a fiver there is the choice of steak and ale pie, southern fried chicken  or jumbo hot dog all served as a plated meal with chips.

ACADEMY UPDATE BY MICHAEL JONES
On Wednesday 1st March we played at home to LBFA who had only lost one game all season whilst winning the rest. We knew going into the game this was going to be a real competitive match for the players but one we would relish playing against a team with such a good record.

The match started off at an extremely quick tempo with both teams eager to stamp their authority and look to control the game. The young Canaries had the better of the early exchanges and after 8 minutes some great play by debutante Jack Young to take on his man and cross from the byline allowed Caleb Wright to finish from close range. This allowed the young Canaries to control the pace of the game and forced LBFA to exert energy trying to press the ball all over the pitch. It took until the 33rd minute for the second goal to go in, after great build up play from the back, James Campbell played a through ball for Taylor Franklin who had made an excellent third man run to play in Caleb Wright who rounded the on rushing goalkeeper and finished superbly from a tight angle. In the 40th minute the visitors pulled a goal back against the run of play, however not long after Hitchin extended their lead again after a Chris Khoo free kick went in direct from the corner of the penalty area. The young Canaries were not done in the first half and in added time some individual brilliance from Jack Young resulted in a penalty kick which he calmly converted to make it 4-1 at half time.

The young Canaries in the second half controlled the game from start to finish and although the visitors did create a few chances while really putting the pressure on in the second half they were unable to really threaten Tyrese Kamara in goal. Asher Banton completed the scoring in the second half with a composed finish one on one with the goalkeeper.

Final score 5-1 win. Another strong performance, the young group is really starting to kick on this season with 13 out of the 16 players in the match day squad being first years.

HTWFC UPDATE BY KARLA CHAFFEY
Both teams were in action last weekend and this is how they got on—

HTWFC Firsts 3 – 0 Kempston Rovers FC
HWFC Canaries 4-0 LGCE Ladies

Fixtures on Sunday 5th March 2023, 14:00 kick off

Stotfold Juniors v HTWFC Canaries
Hitchin Road, Stotfold

We are looking for new players to join our progressing teams. We train weekly at The Arena, Norton Road, Baldock. We train 19:00 – 20:30 each Tuesday and you have to be 16 years old or over.

We are also looking for new sponsors for the women’s set up. We are looking for sponsorship for training kits and tracksuits. If this is something you are interested in please get in touch with Callum on HTLFC.ClubSecretary@gmail.com

BY ROY IZZARD