FIXTURES

  • Saturday 7 December away to Hednesford League kick-off 3.00pm. Coach leaves 10.45am.
  • Monday 9 December away to Letchworth Garden City Eagles Vince Paige Trophy kick-off 7.30pm.

PLAYER NEWS
Jamie Jellis has been signed on loan from Stevenage. He is an attacking midfielder and has played for Aylesbury United this season. He will be in the squad for the Hednesford game.

Josh Coldicott-Stevens has been signed from Kings Langley. He is a creative midfielder and has been at Kings Langley for three seasons and has played more than 20 games this season. He was in the kings Langley team that beat Hitchin earlier in the season and he also will be in the squad for the Hednesford game tomorrow.

Dan Webb was injured on Monday and will miss the Hednesford game.

Jhai Dhillon will face a fitness test ahead of the Hednesford game.

1980’S PLAYER REUNION
The 1980’s player reunion was a great success on Saturday. Nearly 40 ex players were at the Barwell game and we received really positive feedback. Tony Luff was particularly pleased to return to Top Field and has emailed me to say –” Please pass on my thanks to the club for a great day last Saturday 30th November. It was great to see so many old faces and catch up with them all.” It was generally agreed further reunions should happen in the future. I really enjoyed meeting my old heroes and what really came across to me was the deep affection that our ex players still have for Hitchin Town FC and how special they think the club is.

Mark Burke also enjoyed meeting so many old colleagues and all those who attended said to him how much they had enjoyed the occasion and are looking to return in the new year. Mark also wanted to thank Tony Luff for sponsoring Charlie Horlock and Josh Mollison with personalised goalkeeping gloves which he presented at the reunion.

AVERAGE ATTENDANCES
Hitchin are currently ninth in the Central Division average attendance league table with an average of 354. The top three are Stourbridge 830, Bromsgrove 819 and Tamworth 618. The bottom three are St Ives 190, Leiston 190 and Biggleswade 199.

HITCHIN TOWN UNDER 19’S
The academy side were beaten 3-0 at Croydon on Wednesday. Next Wednesday they are away to Luton Cedars.

HITCHIN TOWN LADIES FC
Last Sunday Hitchin Town Ladies FC Firsts lost 5-2 to Northwood Ladies FC

The next fixture is in the Chris Renshaw Trophy on Sunday 8th December 2019 kick-off 13:30 at Ickleford Recreation Ground, Ickleford which sees Hitchin Town Ladies FC Reserves playing Woburn & Wavendon Ladies.

EJA NEWS WITH NICK CARR
Three of our EJA teams were in action last weekend, two of them successfully negotiating their way through to the 4th round of the Herts FA County Cup.

Our U14s defeated Berkhamsted FC Youth by 5-1 with Zion Kelly, Rafael Miles (2), Stanley Howell and Razvan Michi all on the scoresheet.

Our U15s went to town on their opponents Berkhamsted Raiders U15 Blues, banging in 10 goals without reply before half-time causing the referee to call a halt to proceedings under the Herts FA’s new mercy rule 15 minutes into the second half, registering the result as 10-0. Goal scorers were Cathal Fee, Lavel Davis-Thomas and Kyle Devers with two goals each, with Temidire Fashina, Teague Gardiner, Arnold Marimbe, Brandon Owen, Neo Donoghue, George Carr and Davide Righi all getting one each.

Our U18s were the other team in action when hosting Cheshunt Youth in the league, going down 3-1 with debutant Ben Chapman scoring our goal.

Our U14s are the only EJA team in action this weekend when they entertain Soham Town Rangers Youth at North Herts College on Sunday, kick-off 11am.

VOLUNTEER ARMY & CHARITY SUPPORT FROM KATE DELLER
The Wednesday Voluntary Army meets again on Wednesday 11th December at 9.30am at The Canary Club. Alan Jordan and Alan Clark will be on hand to meet willing volunteers. The Army will resume in the new year on the last Wednesday of every month so please keep an eye on the website for details.

We are supporting three wonderful charities this season and just to remind everyone there is a page on our online shop where you can donate. All donations will be divided between Herts Disability Sports Foundation, Garden House Hospice and the North Herts Sanctuary (Stevenage Haven) There are other ways in which you can help these worthy causes.

Please take any spare donations of tinned food, toiletries, men’s clothing, socks, gloves, hats, jumpers and coats to the North Herts Sanctuary , 25 Nightingale Road Hitchin. They would be very pleased to see any donations. They also desperately need either new or clean second hand sleeping bags because of the bad weather. Again if you can help please deliver them to 25 Nightingale Road. When our home matches resume please also bring any donations along to myself and I can deliver these for you.

The Garden House Hospice are getting people moving in the new year. They are organising MED30 Challenge (Move Every Day). You can go online and enter this via their website. It is free to join in but you are encouraged to raise or donate £30.00. I thought it would be great if we could get a large group of supporters to join in. I am willing to set up a funding page if anyone would like to join me. It doesn’t matter what exercise you do every day as long as it is 30 minutes, you can walk, run, swim, bike, play football, as long as you are moving it counts. Keep a diary either on paper or via a free phone app. The hospice are going to organise a party on the 31st January with nibbles and a medal available to anyone who has raised £30.00. Please contact me if you would like to join me by emailing kate.deller@hitchintownfc.club or phoning my mobile 07966 366664. We can get fit and raise money together.

MANAGER’S NOTES WITH MARK BURKE

BARWELL AND LOWESTOFT

I cannot tell you just how bitterly disappointed I was at our performance in Monday night’s game with Lowestoft. I felt only four players came out of the game with any credit and the performance was reminiscent of what we produced at Leiston. I can only put this down to complacency. Virtually the same side that had played so well against Barwell on Saturday played against Lowestoft but we did not show the same desire, drive or work rate. Indeed in the second half we ran out of ideas which resulted in us playing long balls that proved to be meat and drink for the Lowestoft defence.

As I have said before if we are going to create space to play football because teams are pressing us then we need to play balls behind opposing defences to force them back. However on Monday our execution of this strategy was poor as we failed to clear the Lowestoft defence therefore failing to create the space to allow us to play.

We have not become a bad side overnight and have just come off a good unbeaten run. But the players apologised collectively for their poor second half performance and they are determined to rectify matters at Hednesford this Saturday. It is a shame that I have had to dwell on a poor performance on Monday having played so well on Saturday but you are only as good as your last game. The one thing about the Central Division is that it is very competitive and there are no easy games. If you fail to reach your normal standards and do not produce 100% commitment you will be found out. I hope we have learned our lesson after Monday.

HEDNESFORD

Hednesford are fifth in the table with a particularly strong home record having won five and drawn one of their seven home games. Hednesford saw their manager move to Buxton this week and I am always wary of playing teams after a managerial change. It will be a difficult game but we need to start another unbeaten run and look to return to the level of performance we displayed against Barwell last Saturday.

LETCHWORTH GARDEN CITY EAGLES

I will use the Letchworth game to ensure squad players get game time. We have a good relationship with Letchworth and it will be a good competitive game and I am grateful for the chance to look at players who are not playing on a regular basis.

BY ROY IZZARD