WEEKLY BULLETIN – 4TH OCTOBER

FIXTURES

• Saturday 5th October FA Trophy Away to Hashtag United kick-off 3.00pm. Coach leaves at 12.00pm.
• Tuesday 8th October Herts Charity Cup Home to St Albans kick-off 7.45pm.

There are reduced admission prices for this game as follows—Adults £10, concessions £6, teenagers £3, under 13’s £1, over 80’s free. As this is a cup game season ticket holders will need to purchase a ticket as the gate receipts are shared with St Albans. Please buy your tickets online but if you are unable to, tickets can be purchased at the match day ticket office (card payments only) as follows—Adults £12, concessions £8, teenagers £4 and under 13’s £2.

HASHTAG UNITED
Saturday sees us meeting Hashtag United for the first time in our history. Hashtag play in the Isthmian League Premier Division and are currently in 16th position having won three and lost five of their eight games. They play their games at Aveley.

Who are Hashtag United? This is taken from their website–Hashtag United may only be 8 years old, but we’ve crammed a LOT into that time! Founded by creator Spencer Carmichael-Brown, we initially played exhibition games around the world, including at Wembley, and then moved into the world of non-league football in 2018. Four promotions and two mergers later, and we have a men’s team playing in the Isthmian League Premier, a women’s team in the FA Women’s National League Southern Premier, and over 50 youth teams playing at Forest Glade FC.

MANAGER’S NOTES BY BRETT DONNELLY
A quiet week on the pitch with no game for 10 days but we have been as busy as possible on the training pitch since the Royston game. The weather hasn’t been kind, and I was hugely disappointed that our friendly got cancelled Tuesday. It was a great opportunity to get lads back from injury some minutes and also those that haven’t been involved as much to also get back out there. Instead, we have had to work them hard in training and hammer home our ideas further still. We had just turned a corner and I’m hoping the break doesn’t cause us to lose that momentum that was building. We are still looking at improving the squad. If the right players become available, then we will always look to get them in. We want to build a squad here that’s competitive in this league. I feel we are getting there. I have spoken to 2 players this week that have huge experience at this level and the level above and I am hopeful we can work something out. We have all seen the difference Connor Roberts has made coming into our team. Experienced at the level and just a quality addition. I would love to keep him but he’s Chesham’s player and he will return to them in the next 2 weeks. Saying that the squad we have now is full of energy, quality, youthful exuberance, experience and hopefully now, confidence. We have competition for places all over the pitch. That’s what I like in my squads. That feeling of players not knowing if they are nailed on to start must be there. If you’re playing well, you keep your shirt. If not, then you’ll be on the bench or in the stands. Competition for places is always needed. That said this week we lost Jay Rolfe. It never really got going for him with injuries and the team not being settled. I have no doubt of his quality, but he needs to be playing regularly, and we couldn’t give him that. I wish him all the best and look forward to seeing him get back to where he knows he should be in terms of performance.

This week we have another week off league action. We head to Hashtag United for our FA Trophy tie Saturday. It’s going to be a tough one, they have had a meteoric rise through the leagues and have a lot of interest in all their games. We have done our due diligence on them, and we hope we have enough to keep our unbeaten run going. We need to be at our best and impose our game on them like we did for most of the Royston game. It’s a competition that as a player I didn’t have many runs in and after the early FA cup exit it would be nice to have a good run in it this year. Also gives you a break from league duties. That’s always needed. Good to see the coach full again. Can’t tell you how much the support means. It was brilliant at Halesowen, a few but Merry band. Hoping for the same again. Well, maybe a few more!!

Tuesday sees as back at home in Herts Charity Cup action. Be an opportunity to use the squad. As always, it’s a tough fixture. They have the same issues as us this season in finding winning games a problem. Their manager David Noble has been getting some stick but I’ve known Nobby a long time, a very long time in fact. He’s a winner and this run they are on will hurt him so I fully expect a strong side out and a very difficult evening. We want to use it to get players back, but I also want to be able to move into the next round and keep confidence up. Looking forward to being back at home at the start of a very busy period.

Look forward to seeing as many of you as possible over the next few weeks. Hope you can all see the improvements we’re making. Get behind us and stick with it. We all appreciate the support.

Donners

MERCHANDISE UPDATE BY PAUL SPRAGUE
We now have great availability on replica home and away shirts and across the range of Hope + Glory hoodies. We know lots of you have been waiting for your size to come into stock – so the Club Shop will be open from 10.30-11.30 on Saturday 5th October before we head off to Hashtag United. So call in and grab your HTFC merchandise. As always the shop will be open at all of upcoming home games too.

ONLINE TICKET AND MERCHANDISE SALES UPDATE BY CHRIS NEWBOLD
Firstly…..an apology

As many of you will have experienced, some of the recent orders from our online only Fanwear Range took longer than we expected to arrive and dispatch.

We were rather in the laps of the gods with our suppliers. They are a new supplier and have it seems been victims of their own success (they also supply Kettering and Stourbridge in our division), to the degree that the amount of demand for their goods resulted in a serious backup in fulfilling orders at their factory. This was also at the peak demand time (start of season).

That said, the backlog has now been fully resolved and we expect that orders of our Fanwear range will be with us within 3-4 weeks of us placing orders. These items take longer than the standard ranges in the club shop because they are individually made.

I can only apologise, and thank all of you who have so far ordered Fanwear for your tremendous patience during what was an unacceptable amount of time that some of you had to wait for your goalkeeper shirts, hoodies and T-Shirts. We sincerely trust that any future orders will now be delivered to us by the suppliers within their agreed timescales, which in turn will ensure that we can dispatch the goods to you within our timescale commitments.

Fanwear
If you have not seen the Fanwear range, please take a look on the Merchandise part of the tickets website. As already mentioned, it is all individually produced. Includes goalkeeper replica shirts, different hoodies and T-shirts, and jackets and bench coats. I will wear my Jade colored Hoodie that I have purchased from the Fanwear range at the next home game – you won’t miss me!!!

Sizing
If you are buying any items online, we publish sizing charts for each item on the website. Please take the time to check your size before you order and make sure you are ordering the correct size.

Finally….on the tickets front
With a large number of home games coming up in October its a great time to purchase a flexi-ticket. These five game tickets allow you to purchase your tickets in advance at a discounted rate. You can then choose which league games to redeem your tickets for. Buy your ticket here: https://hitchintownfc.ktckts.com/merchandise/hit2425flexi/flexi-ticket-202425-5-matches
Please be aware that as well as buying for yourself, if you are bringing any friends or family to games you may use as many tickets out of the bundle as you wish for a single game.
A bundle of five Flexi Tickets costs £58 Adult and £40 Concession.

ACADEMY UPDATE BY MICHAEL JONES
On Wednesday we travelled to Bishop Stortford for our first away game of the season. This week we were down to the bare bones as a sickness bug had made its way through the Academy. We had to make a decision to either cancel the game or go with just 11 players who had not suffered with the bug and we decided to go for the game.

A really sloppy start to the game saw us go behind within a minute of the match starting. We then started to control the game and within 10 minutes we were level after an excellent strike from Melison Sykaj went like a bullet into the back of the net.

However the young Canaries joy did not last long as Melsion Sykaj was on the end of a bad tackle and had to come off injured from the match which meant we had to play the remaining 75 minutes with 10 men. This did not deter the players and they continued to control the game with 10 men and create a few chances and in the 33rd minute they were rewarded for their efforts after William Mcneill scored a free kick which went straight into the top corner. This was his 6th goal in the first 3 league matches. The score was 2-1 at half time.

We knew the second half was going to be tough, 10 men and 3 of the 10 playing their first game of the season. 10 minutes into the second half and the scores were level, some tired legs struggled to cut out the cross and the ball was put in at the back post. This drained even more energy out of the team and galvanized Bishop Stortford. As the game went on the pressure started to build and with 15 minutes to go a ball in behind put the opposition player 1v1 and he slotted the ball into the back of the net to give Bishop Stortford the lead with 5 minutes to go and the young Canaries pushing hard for the equaliser left them exposed at the back and a break away finished the game with the 4th goal for the hosts. Final score 4–2 Bishop Stortford.

Head coach Stephen Gleeson had this to say “We knew going into this game it was going to be a tough fixture and then we had a sickness bug which has affected multiple players in the academy meaning we had to decide to play the game or cancel. We made the decision to play and test ourselves. When Melison came off injured so early I thought we might throw the towel in but the lads were excellent and the first half especially we deserved to be in front. Second half we struggled with tired legs and I was hoping we might be able to hold on for a draw but it was not to be. I can’t fault the lads and they will be rewarded at training for their efforts in difficult circumstances”

We are now recruiting for September 25 with our next open session being Wednesday 30th October 2024 at The Arena, Norton Road, Baldock, Hertfordshire, SG7 5AU on the all weather pitch between 4pm – 6:30pm.

If you would like to find out more information or register your interest please use this link – https://www.northhertsarena.co.uk/next-trial-dates or email michael.jones@wearescl.co.uk

Junior Canaries
We have had plenty of people sign up as Junior Canaries and we like to give a special welcome to the first 10 people who signed up.

• Oliver Chistmas
• Charlie Christmas
• Rex Griffiths
• Christian Collins
• Oscar Mashima-Thompson
• Sebastian Grouse
• Amelie Grouse
• Alban Ponvert Terrell
• JJ O’Neil
• James Mason

Our first edition of the Junior Canaries newsletter has been released. We hope you all our new Junior Canaries enjoy it.

If you wish to sign up as a Junior Canary, please email juniorcanaries@hitchintownfc.club with the following details:
Name, Date of birth, Address, School, Club Team (if applicable), Team you support, Parent/Guardian Name, Email, Contact Number.

We look forward to welcoming you all to the Junior Canaries.

HTWFC UPDATE BY CALLUM ELLIS
Results:

• HTWFC 4 – 0 Watton Ladies FC
  HTWFC Canaries P – P Cranfield United Ladies

Fixtures:
League Cup QR – 14:00 Kick off
HTWFC v Mk United
St Christophers School, Letchworth Garden City, SG6 3JZ

Harpenden Town Colts v HTWFC Canaries
Harpenden Town FC, AL5 2EF

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

COMMUNITY UPDATE BY MARK BURKE
October School Holiday Camps – Open for Registration

We have released the dates for 2 School Holiday Camps we will be running over the October half term and registration for them is now open on our website https://www.Northhertsarena.co.uk/holiday-courses

We will be hosting our normal Football Holiday Camp at The Arena in Baldock and following on from our successful Summer Multi Activity Camps at Preston JMI School we will be returning to host another camp.

Both camps will run from Tuesday 29th to and including Thursday 31st October and are open for girls and boys aged from 5 – 14 years old.

The camps operate from 9.30am to 3.30pm each day and costs £25 per day or £60 for all 3 days.

The Arena
We are still taking on children that wish to sign up to our 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 specific goalkeeping course called Safe Hands for children of all ages and abilities.

YOUTH SHOWCASE BY PAUL SPRAGUE
Last Saturday we set up in Market Place alongside 18 other organisations to showcase the opportunities available for young people in Hitchin. Remarkably the sun was shining and it was great to get to chat to well over 100 people who visited the stall. We were able to spread the word on all the great opportunities we have to offer. As well as visits for first team matches at Top Field we also discussed the coaching and facilities available at the Arena (and at Pirton during the holidays) as well as opportunities with the Hitchin Town Youth FC teams. Huge thanks to the Rotary Club Hitchin and North Herts Council for organising the event. Also huge thanks to our volunteers that gave up time on a “free” Saturday to help run the stall.

NEWS OF EX-CANARIES
A number of former Hitchin Town players featured in the games played la.st week. Callum Stead scored for Barnet and Steve Cawley for Potters Bar while Will Wright scored for Swindon. Lawrie Marsh scored the winning goal for Biggleswade against Canvey Island in the FA Cup

Lucas Kirkpatrick (Barton Rovers) and Stan Georgiou (AFC Dunstable) each received a red card.

Finley Wilkinson has joined Braintree on loan from Barnet.

Ashley Hay scored a fantastic hat-trick this week for Brentford B Team – check out their social media channels to watch it back.

BY ROY IZZARD