WEEKLY BULLETIN – 8TH JULY

FIXTURES

• Our next fixture is on Tuesday 19th July when we will host Boreham Wood at Top Field kick-off 7.30pm.

FA YOUTH CUP DRAW
We have been drawn at home to Godmanchester in the extra preliminary round of the FA Youth Cup. This game is to be played week commencing 15th August.

Should we win we will travel to Cogenhoe in the week commencing 29th August in the preliminary round.

LUTON TOWN AT TOP FIELD
On Tuesday 12th July we will be hosting Luton Under 23’s who are playing Crawley Green Under 23‘s with a 7.00pm kick-off. Tickets can be purchased through our website. Prices are £4 for adults, £2 for concessions and £1 for teenagers and under 13’s with over 80’s free. Tickets are now on sale.

MANAGER’S NOTES WITH MARK BURKE

I would like to thank both Luton and Stevenage for sending down two very strong squads and I would also like to thank all the supporters who turned up in such high numbers for the two games. The two main objectives of these games were fitness and finance and I believe we achieved both (wearing my treasurer’s hat I can confirm the finance part—Roy).

I thought we acquitted ourselves well against Luton and I thought we were very organised defensively throughout the match. We even created a few chances that we could have scored from.

I mixed the team up for the Stevenage game but we suffered our first setback of the season within the first minute when two of my more experienced players—Josh Coldicott-Stevens and Lewis Barker –suffered a clash of heads and had to be substituted. This obviously unsettled us and it affected my plans for how many minutes players would play. Once again we worked very hard but we were not as organised as we were against Luton due to the enforced changes.

As in the pre-season friendly with Stevenage last year when ex-Canary Harry Draper scored a ‘’worldie’’, Kane Smith decided to follow suit with an equally brilliant goal. While disappointed to concede the goal I was really pleased to see Kane finally playing for a Football League club which he fully deserved.

I thought in the second half we were able to regroup and put on a similar performance to the Luton game and it was a shame Stevenage scored with the last kick of the game.

On Thursday we beat Letchworth City Garden Eagles 2-0 to retain the Vince Paige Trophy. I would like to thank Letchworth for hosting us. While the majority of the first team had a cool down session at Baldock, the others were able to join the triallists , development players and youngsters and it was a useful experience.

We will now have five consecutive training sessions to ensure the players are properly organised and are drilled with the pattern of play we intend to use. We will also work on fitness levels.

INJURY UPDATE
Josh Coldicott-Stevens and Lewis Barker went to hospital after the Stevenage game and did not get out until 4.30am on Wednesday morning. Josh had his wound glued together but Lewis has to return to hospital on Saturday for stitches to be inserted.

MORE SIGNINGS
We can confirm that Jack Green and Josh Coldicott-Stevens have signed on for the new season. Jack was unlucky with injuries last season but is a key player while Josh went from strength to strength and will only continue to improve.

MERCHANDISE NEWS
The new home shirt can now be purchased online. Adult shirts are £40 and junior shirts £32. All sizes are available except 2XL They can also be purchased at the club shop. There are now just four of last season’s away shirts left. They are all small and cost £22.50.

You can now purchase black draw string bags at £8, a new line for this season. There are also some copies of the Luton programme available online.

REFLECTIONS ON LUTON
Looking back at the Luton game we certainly saw the benefit of the new ticketing system. Each day we could monitor ticket sales and because of this we were able to plan accordingly. It became obvious parking would be a major problem so we approached NHDC to ask permission to use Butts Close. Also knowing how many supporters had bought tickets meant we were able to plan our stewarding and security requirements to meet the demand. We were also able to order extra stock for Canary Club and advise Canary Kitchen who also ordered extra stock and increased their staff.

This would not have been possible if the game was cash payments only and we would have been taken by surprise and would have really struggled to cope while parking would have been carnage. Also the security aspect of having large sums of cash on site would have been very uncomfortable.

Because we were so organised we were able to provide a much better match day experience for the 2,213 supporters who hopefully went away impressed by our organisation. I would like to pay tribute to all the volunteers who worked so hard on the night and I would particularly like to thank Chris Newbold, David Tudball and Kate Deller who headed up the match day operation.

HELP FOR HITCHIN FIRE BRIGADE BY MICK DOCKING
As a Community Club we always try to lend our support to good causes wherever we are able, so when Mark Andrews from Hitchin Fire Station approached me the other day, asking for assistance, it was a no brainer. Mark is the on-call Crew Commander at Hitchin

Hitchin On-Call Poster1The Fire Station is based in Newton Way and has 2 appliances. One of these is crewed permanently during the day, all year long, by what the fire service call ‘Day crewed’ personnel and the 2nd fire appliance is crewed solely by on-call personnel who make up an invaluable part of the team, responding when needed in an emergency after being alerted by our Fire Control via pager. All on-call crew work or live within a 4 minute radius of the fire station.

Recent retirements of on-call crew members have resulted in staffing levels being below those required, so at present the on-call appliance is not able to respond to emergency calls.

In order to restore emergency service the Brigade desperately needs to recruit new on-call crew and have asked us to join them in spreading the word. The more people in town that can be engaged with, the better chance of finding would-be on-call crew.

In addition to highlighting the problem around the Club, in our Match Programme and at the ground, we hope to spread the word via our social media platforms. Long serving supporters will recall occasional visits to Top Field in years past by the Fire Brigade – this we hope can again be arranged in the summer months. Fireman Sam might not be on the wagon and there will be no high speed rides for the kids, but a chance for young and old alike to get up close with real Firefighters.

If you are interested in volunteering for this vital role more information can be found at https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/services/fire-and-rescue/jobs-in-fire-and-rescue/on-call-firefighter-jobs.aspx

On-call firefighter jobs | Hertfordshire County Council
An on-call firefighter is a fully trained firefighter who responds to incidents from home, work or other locations. On-call firefighters continue their normal day to day activity or primary employment, but they are contacted via an alerter for a 999 call and attend their fire station, collect their fire kit and attend the same incidents as a whole time firefighter.
www.hertfordshire.gov.uk
or by contacting Mark direct on 07880547310

BY ROY IZZARD