WEEKLY BULLETIN – 8TH NOV
FIXTURES
- Saturday 9 November Home to Bedfont Sports FA Trophy 1st Qualifying Round kick-off 3.00pm.
- If we beat Bedfont Sports we will play on Monday 11 November at home to Paulton Rovers in the 2nd Qualifying Round of the FA Trophy kick-off 7.45pm.
- If we lose to Bedfont Sports we will play on Monday 11 November at home to Welwyn Garden City in the Herts Senior Cup kick-off 7.45pm.
- If we draw with Bedfont Sports the replay will be at Bedfont on Tuesday 12 November kick-off 7.45pm.
PLAYER NEWS
- We have signed Daniel Cirjan, a 21 year old attacking midfielder. His previous club was FC Romania. His 16 year old brother Catalin is a member of Arsenal’s Under 18 squad and it was through ex-Canary Ken Gillard who is the manager of Arsenal Under 18’s that the link was made. He is cup tied for the FA Trophy having played for F C Romania in an earlier round.
- Lewis Ferrell has been transferred to Biggleswade Town.
- Alex Anderson has been transferred to Kings Langley.
There should be an injury free squad to choose from for the Bedfont game on Saturday.
GUESTS ON SATURDAY
The match ball on Saturday is sponsored by the Spavins family who have become regular sponsors over the past few seasons in memory of Canaries legend Bruce Spavins who played 242 games between 19563/54 and 1963/64. We thank them again for their support and hope they enjoy the day.
Another Canaries legend will also be present on Saturdayas Maurice Howkins will be attending with his wife. Maurice played 508 games between 1966/67 and 1980/81.
REMEMBRANCE DAY
It is traditional for the footballing world to pay tribute on the match day closest to Remembrance Sunday. In seasons past the minute’s silence has been observed in the company of the local Royal British Legion. Today, representing the Armed Forces we welcome Warrant Officer Class 2 Simon “Todd” Martin of the Household Cavalry the Blues and Royals, who will be laying a wreath on the centre spot prior to kick-off and joining with the players and match officials for the minute’s silence. Warrant Officer Martin has served for 22 years with his Regiment deploying all over the world as well as on Operations in Bosnia right through to Afghanistan. He has served alongside HRH Prince Harry as well as James Blunt who were also members of the Household Cavalry.
Todd’s son Josh is football mad and he has held a season ticket for Hitchin Town FC for a couple of seasons now. Every time he visits a new area he will look up the local team and try to get to watch a game. Amongst the teams he’s watched are Chelsea, Manchester United, Ipswich Town, Portsmouth, Brentford Town, and Telford United as well as watching the National team play at Wembley and other local sides. He has attended a game from each tier of the English game as well as European competitions.
Josh started to support Hitchin Town upon moving to the local area and he tries to attend away games too. He’s even helped out with the club as an unofficial ball boy retrieving the balls for the team during their pre-match warm up. Josh enjoys playing too, representing his school team, the Priory, as well as Hitchin Lions U15’s where he plays in goal.
Todd approached the club and asked to be involved with Hitchin Town FC’s act of Remembrance as his son is now at the age where he finds his dad embarrassing, so he’s going to get a surprise this afternoon.
COMMENTARY WITH NORTH HERTS RADIO
North Herts Radio will be at Top Field on Saturday 9 Nov 2019, to bring you live commentary of Hitchin Town’s Buildbase FA Trophy 1st Round Qualifying match.
Freddie Cardy and Marac Alionic will be your hosts with the programme starting at 2:45pm.
We are on the ‘North Herts Radio Extra’ channel on the North Herts Radio website.
If you are using a mobile device the latest North Herts FM Android App is available to download from the Play Store which will give access to the ‘North Herts Radio Extra’ channel.
North Herts Radio is also available as an Apple App and on Alexa.
HITCHIN TOWN UNDER 19’S
On Wednesday our Pro Direct Under 19’s were at St George’s Park. The whole squad were there with three other Pro Direct Academy teams. The four teams played each other in 50 minute games and the whole exercise was connected to training for VAR. Championship referees were being shown how VAR works in case they should be called up to officiate a Premier League game. So our boys had the games stopped for potential penalty calls and offside decisions as in the Premier League itself.
It was great experience for them. The facilities at St Georges Park were out of this world and our team used the Paul Gascoigne dressing room that the full England squad prefer to use when using the facilities at St George’s Park. Incidentally the England Ladies team were at St George’s Park at the same time with Phil Neville to add to the experience of the day.
Four of our players were in the Pro Direct Select Squad that beat an Arsenal Academy side 3-2 at their London Colney training base recently in a game that was sponsored by Adidas. The squad is chosen from the 17 Pro Direct Academies and Damon Lathrope our Academy head is managing the team. They play once a month against good level opposition and recently beat Stevenage 6-1.
Our Pro Direct Academy players are getting great opportunities. Four players were invited to Tottenham’s new stadium for the launch of FIFA 20 where they met the Spurs squad and had a guided tour of the stadium. Others players received complimentary tickets to the recent England v Bulgaria game.
HITCHIN TOWN LADIES FC
Sunday saw Biggleswade United visit Ickleford for the very first time to play our reserve team. Biggleswade are one of the favourites to win promotion in Division Three this season and they got the game underway and found many holes within the Reserves defence and were seven goals in front within the first half. The second half got underway and Biggleswade added two more to their tally. The best goal of the game fell to the Reserves keeper. With nothing to lose she stood up take a free kick, which hit the defensive wall and came back out to her and she sent a 30 yard strike from outside of the box and he ball hit the back of the net over the back pedalling Biggleswade keeper. The final score was Hitchin Town Ladies FC Reserves 1 – 9 Biggleswade United Ladies.
Sunday also saw the Firsts play against local rivials Hitchin Belles at St Christophers School. With no points on the table and with high scores against them, the Belles were looking to kick start their campaign in Division One. The Ladies got the game under way and were soon knocking at the Belles door waiting for their chance. It was Darling who found the first goal of the game and started her goal scoring tally for Hitchin Town Ladies FC. The second half came and it was it Darling who doubled the lead with after a sliding challenge on the on-coming Belles keeper. Darling sent the ball across the face of the goal with Wyatt there for the tap in. Huffer sent the ball low into the Belles box and it came off a Belles defender and past the keeper to make it four.
This coming weekend fixtures – 10th November 2019
League Cup – 13:30 Kick Off
Flitwick Eagles Ladies v Hitchin Town Ladies FC Firsts
Flitwick Eagles FC, Flitwick, Beds, MK45 1BA
Beds & Herts Women’s Football League – Division Three
Hitchin Town Ladies FC Reserves v Buntingford Town Ladies
Ickleford Recreation Ground, Chambers Lane, Ickleford
EJA NEWS WITH NICK CARR
Only two of our EJA futures survived the weather at the weekend with the U15 and U17s both without games.
Our U14 and U18s might have wished their games had been called off as well as both suffered defeats. The U14s lost 2-0 to league leaders Cambridge City Youth despite playing the better football throughout, a view shared by the Cambridge City coach, whilst the U18s went down 5-3 in the League Challenge Cup to Cheshunt Youth with Shaun Dowler, Gabriel Kwarteng and James Thompson on the scoresheet for us.
Our U17s were in EJA Midweek Cup action last night when they faced a challenging away trip to AFC Sudbury Academy to play their U18s. It proved to be too big a challenge as the boys went down 4-1.
Just three of our teams are in action this weekend and all are away. The U14s make the long trip to Bury St. Edmunds for a league game against Bury Town. The U15s are away to Tring Athletic Youth in the EJA President’s Cup and the U17s are away to Biggleswade Town in the EJA League Challenge Cup with the tie being played at the Valley Sports Complex, Broadhall Way, Stevenage, kickoff 2:30pm.
Three of the teams also have midweek games next week, and all have away ties in the EJA Midweek Cup. The U18s travel to Essex to take on Aveley Youth on Tuesday whilst the U15s undertake a similar journey on Friday to take on Bowers & Pitsea. Finally, the U14s are at Cheshunt, also on Friday.
MANAGER’S NOTES WITH MARK BURKE
ST IVES TOWN
I had stressed in last week’s bulletin what I expected from the players in what I felt was a ‘six point game’ so I was delighted with their attitude, approach and performance against St Ives. I felt we were in control for the whole game and ran out deserved winners. It was a very important result and we achieved all our goals scoring three times, keeping a clean sheet and extending the gap between ourselves and St Ives in the league table.
The one blemish on the day was yet another penalty miss and having watched the Rugby World Cup I am going to suggest in the future that if we are awarded a penalty we will choose to take a corner instead!
BEDFONT SPORTS
We finally get to play Bedfont Sports in The First Qualifying Round of the Buildbase FA Trophy on Saturday. The delay means we have been able to watch Bedfont on two occasions and we know it will be a difficult game. Bedfont play good football and possess plenty of pace in their team.
We have to insure we show the same attitude and application we showed at St Ives because we will need to be at our best to progress. I really want to have a good run in the Buildbase FA Trophy and I hope the supporters continue to get behind the team.
MONDAY/TUESDAY
We will not know what will happen midweek until the finish of the Bedfont game. If we win we will play Paulton Rovers at Top Field on Monday in the next round of the Trophy while if we lose we will host Welwyn Garden City in the Herts Senior Cup. Should we draw with Bedfont we will play the replay on Tuesday. So without a crystal ball I am unable to do a preview but rest assured we will be going all out to still be in the Trophy come Monday.
BY ROY IZZARD