WEEKLY BULLETIN 6TH JUNE
MANAGERS NOTES By Michael Jones
We have now announced our first three signings for the 25/26 campaign and I hope you are all as excited as we are to see all three of them in our Hitchin Town shirt.
Josh Coldicott-Stevens is someone we all know well. Josh made the decision to leave for Royston, where he has enjoyed two good seasons and became a supporters favourite during his time with them. I am pleased to get Josh back to the club as he is someone that can add the right quality and experience to our midfield and is someone I enjoyed working with previously when he was at the club. Welcome home Josh.
Charlie Briggs is someone I know really well as I used to coach him when he was 16 years old. He is now 28 and will add more quality and experience to our back line. Charlie has played games at Step 3 and also won Step 4 with Biggleswade Town, where he was captain of the club. I am looking forward to working with Charlie again. Welcome to the club Charlie.
Charlie McDonald will bring quality and also new enthusiasm and freshness to our squad. Charlie had a good youth career as he came through the academy system before signing for St Albans City. Charlie has enjoyed successful loan spells at Step 4 and despite only being 20, has good experience for the league. Charlie is a central midfielder who will add energy to the middle of the park but also the right technical ability to suit our style of play. Charlie can also play in the back line if needed as well. Welcome to the club Charlie.
All three players will make us stronger this season and add new qualities to the players we have already retained as we aim to have a positive season.
We will be announcing more new additions in the next few weeks as we prepare for the start of our pre season training in less than 3 weeks and our first game against Barnet FC.
SEASON TICKETS FOR 2025-26
I make no apologies for repeating season ticket details as they really are good value. Sales have again been healthy this week and the total sold has now reached 80. Below is the reminder of how you can purchase a season ticket.
Information about the season tickets is listed below, but one piece of information that some might not be aware of is that you have two possible options for the way that you can have your ticket delivered to you. You can either select to have it sent to an Apple Passbook (for Apple phones) or Google Wallet (for Android Phones), or you can order a plastic card if you prefer.
If you are buying Season Ticket for someone else and you want to select a download to phone option, there is now a forwarding option available where the ticket can be sent from your phone (where it will be delivered) to the person who is going to be the attendee, via email, and they can then download the ticket to their wallet.
Obviously this might help some but be difficult for others, in which case the plastic card option is available.
The Club has decided that prices will remain unchanged from last season, so prices will be as follows:
Adults: £168.00
Concessions (Aged 60-79): £125.00
Teenagers: £40.00
Children Under 13 accompanying an adult: £20.00
Senior (Aged 80+): FREE
Season tickets will be valid for all League games during 2025-2026 and for all pre-season friendlies, from the point when the ticket is purchased. They will not be valid for FA Cup, FA Trophy or County Cup games, or any testimonial games that might be arranged.
You can either order a season ticket to be downloaded to your phone via Apple Passbook, or Google Wallet, or you can order a Plastic Season ticket card. These will not be available until mid June at the earliest but once ready, they will be dispatched to you.
Season tickets represent fantastic value and they are the best way in which we can look after our loyal fans. Over the course of the season, the purchase of a Season Ticket represents an almost 40% saving on Adult and Concession Match Day tickets, and over 50% for Teenagers and Children Under 13. In addition, with free entry to our home pre-season fixtures included an Adult Season Ticket saves £49 on this alone compared to purchasing individual tickets.
IMPORTANT PLEASE READ AND NOTE:
If you are ordering any tickets for anyone other than yourself:
You must use the “Edit Details” box to enter the name, date of birth and phone number (if different) of the person who will be the Cardholder and attendee at games. This ensures that the correct name will be on the season ticket before production and that we have correct cardholder details. Season tickets ordered that are not in the name of the attendee will not be valid and will not be processed until the required information is produced.
Here’s hoping you will be back to support us in an exciting season ahead.
SOUTHERN LEAGUE FIXTURES
The Southern League announced this week that they hope to release the 2025/6 fixtures in the week commencing 14th July.
PRE-SEASON GAMES
You can buy your tickets for all of our pre-season games. Please use the following link.
https://hitchintownfc.ktckts.com/brand/match-tickets
HALL OF FAME
It was announced this week that Dan Webb and Nick Sopowski have been inducted in to our Hall of Fame. Below is the full announcement that appeared on our website–
It has been a few years since we last inducted new members to our Hall of Fame so we are pleased to announce two worthy additions in Dan Webb and Nick Sopowski.
Dan joined Hitchin from Shefford & Campton and played his first game for Hitchin on 9th August 2012. He went on to play 405 games scoring 40 goals before playing his last game on 23rd April 2022. Dan was a very consistent defender who virtually guaranteed a seven or eight out of ten performance. He was club captain for six seasons and a great role model. He was totally loyal to Hitchin and was a one club man who gained the total respect of players, management and supporters. Mark Burke described Dan as ‘’an absolute rock in all the teams I managed’’. Dan won two Herts Senior Cups, the Southern League Cup and two Herts Charity Cups. He scored that memorably equaliser at Leatherhead in the FA Cup replay and also scored the winning goal against Poole on the day of our Save Top Field protest march.
Dan was modest, thoroughly decent and likeable as well as an excellent footballer. His induction to the Hall of Fame will be a hugely popular decision. In his farewell message to supporters Dan said he had been proud and privileged to have played for and captained the side for so long. Only playing legends get in to the Hall of Fame and Dan most certainly meets that criteria
Nick Sopowski is the archetypal unsung hero club volunteer. He does so much work behind the scenes that few supporters know about. He is a vital member of our physio team and has often had the match day role of attending injured players on the pitch. But he also works closely with kit manager Derek Barker in organising match day kit requirements (and tidying up the dressing room after a game). He also looks after the players by providing match day treats including fruit and sweets which are really well received. If there is no coach Nick will fill his car with all the match day physio gear, footballs, players’ treats ,the ghetto blaster, the defibrillator—it is like preparing for a battle and I am amazed just how much Nick fits in to his car! He also looks after the footballs and is in charge of ordering the physio equipment. Nick also helped Neil Jensen set up our first proper website for the club and then proceeded to improve it and manage it until Stewart Curtis came on board to build a new website, which you see today.
Nick is always working behind the scenes and does not look for praise but just gets on with the job. He really is a vital cog in the whole Hitchin Town FC operation. After watching a game at the end of the 1992/93 season Nick was hooked and joined Steve Barker’s ground team in that close season. Then in 1995 he watched an under 18 game and when he saw they had no physio he volunteered to do the job and went on courses to learn the ropes. This led to him helping Peter Prince who was the first team physio and he has been part of the medical team ever since. There is no doubt Nick is a worthy entrant to our Hall of Fame.
You can view the full Hall of Fame here: https://hitchintownfc.club/hall-of-fame/
COMMUNITY UPDATE By Mark Burke
Preston Junior School
First team player and resident coach at Preston Junior School Lewis Franklin and community coach Fraser Melvin joined in with pupils on the last day of term before the May half term holiday to participate in an event called the ‘Colour Run.
This saw Lewis and Fraser sporting white t-shirts and running past all the pupils to be pelted with colour capsules creating unique patterns on their t-shirts and as can be seen their faces, hair and arms!!!
We then staged a multi-activity school holiday camp at the school on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the following week with First Team Manager Michael Jones joining Lewis Franklin to host the camps as seen below
The Arena May Holiday Camp
The Arena staged its regular Football Camp over the May school holidays with lots of children from 5-14 years attending. The new target board proved very popular and will be a regular feature of future holiday camps.
Icknield Infants School – Letchworth
This week saw us begin 2 new after school clubs at Icknield Infants school a new school we would like to welcome to our group of existing schools. Community Manager Josh Mollison lead the sessions with Tennis taking place on the Tuesday and Football on the Wednesday where he was assisted by community coach Chris Khoo.
The Arena Football Courses
The new dates for our coaching clinics at the Arena are available to be booked on via the website www.northhertsarena.co.uk
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).
Monday 9th June to 14th July 2025 (6 sessions) Cost: £24
Wednesday evenings from 5.30-6.30pm we host a specific goalkeeping course called Safe Hands for children of all ages and abilities delivered by former 1st team goalkeeper Josh Mollison.
Wednesday 11th June – 16th July 2025 (6 weeks) Cost: £36
Roy Izzard