WEEKLY BULLETIN – 8TH NOVEMBER

FIXTURES

• Saturday 9th November League Away to Biggleswade Town kick-off 3.00pm. There is no coach to this game.
• There is no midweek fixture.
• The Herts Senior Cup tie with Hemel Hempstead has been arranged for Tuesday 3rd December kick-off 7.45pm.

MANAGER’S NOTES BY MICHAEL JONES

Banbury United
Well what a day Saturday was away to Banbury United. Firstly, I would like to thank all of our supporters who turned out in such great numbers considering our two heavy home defeats in previous fixtures. I think it goes to show what a great supporter base we have at the club, even in extremely difficult times. We have dedicated supporters who are willing to get behind the team/club to try their best to improve the situation we find ourselves in.

The first half was as expected, Banbury were 7th for a reason. Very hard working, very organised, good with the ball and used to winning games while not conceding goals. We tried to gain some control of the game but we found it extremely difficult to break down a solid Banbury team. Banbury had a few half chances but nothing on target except the goal. I was disappointed with the goal we conceded as it was very soft and had undone all the hard work we had put in to that point in the game. I was also disappointed we were unable to create anything in the first half.

We corrected a few things at half time but also explained to the players that we needed to get rid of the nervous energy- I know for a fact they had some because I had loads of it standing in the dugout! We had nothing to lose at half time and we made this clear to the players.

In the second half Banbury put us under a lot of pressure in the opening 10 minutes but the defence stood firm. We made three substitutions who all added energy to the game at the right times and this allowed us to up the tempo in the last 30 minutes. Daniel Stokoe got us back in the game with a well taken goal, and the lift this gave the supporters was clear! This gave the team the extra energy needed to go on and claim the 3 points with a late winner from Henry Snee. I am delighted for Henry, he came to Hitchin a few years ago and he was still young. He chose to gain more experience at other clubs and he has come back a better player who is hungry to show the supporters what he can do. He has been injured all season but we are hoping he can build his fitness back up and have a real impact in the group and on the pitch.

There is no better feeling than celebrating a hard earned win with the supporters at the end of a hard-fought game. We hope you all loved the feeling as much as we did.

We now all have to stay grounded and just take one game at a time. Hopefully Saturday’s performance has filled you with the belief and optimism that although we might not pick up points every week we should be going into every game knowing this group can compete at this level.

Biggleswade Town
Biggleswade Town sit bottom of the table as things stand. This means nothing so early on in the season- I think all Hitchin supporters can understand that the table in the first half of the season can be totally different to the final one of the season.

Biggleswade Town are very organised, hard working and a threat from set plays. I truly believe Jimmy Martin has organised a well balanced squad with some experienced physical players and young hungry ones. They have kept 3 clean sheets in their last 3 games against some very good teams in Potters Bar, Bedford Town and away to Stourbridge at the weekend. We know the task Saturday will be as tough as Banbury, if not even tougher.

Some may be building this game up to be more than what it is; season defining, massive 6 pointer, relegation battle. As far as I see it it’s way too early in the season for this game to mean anything more than 3 points. We are 1/3 of the way through the season and we still have plenty of points to play for. It will be another test of character for this group and regardless of the result we will be better for the experience come 5pm on Saturday.

Please come out in your numbers again to a relatively local fixture- it does make a difference to know everyone is in this together.

Player News
We have signed Sam Carman. Sam is a young goalkeeper who debuted against Hadley. He is still learning his trade but he is motivated to develop and push to be Hitchin’s number one.

I know the goalkeeping situation has been up in the air this season, we had James Callan at the start of this season and although James is a good goalkeeper it wasn’t meant to be. Kyle Forster came in and had a really good impact but he has struggled with commitment issues since the Royston Town away game. We have Bradley Shaw who is currently getting minutes at Step 5 to gain the experience needed to climb up the football pyramid and we also have Joshua Strizovic on loan from Dagengham & Redbridge who has had a difficult start to his time with Hitchin but has shown on Saturday that he can have an impact on the pitch.

Please rest assured we are trying hard to get as much stability in the group and will continue to work hard to find Charlie Horlock’s long term replacement. Who would have thought replacing a club legend like Charlie Horlock would have been such hard work! However I am delighted for Charlie as he is an excellent goalkeeper who is doing great things at Slough (playing in the division above Hitchin)

• Lewis Barker and Daniel Sears have completed their suspensions and will be in contention for squad selection.
• Liam Brooks is still a few weeks away but we are hoping to get him back firing soon.
• Sam Carman picked up a knock for Baldock Town on Tuesday night but should be back training in a couple of weeks.
• George Morrall requires surgery on his knee which unfortunately means his season is over.
• Bradley Bell is improving his fitness in training and we will be looking to get him some game time elsewhere so he can have an impact in the squad in the next few weeks.

INTERVIEW WITH HENRY SNEE
After his late goal won us the points at Banbury I spoke to Henry Snee —-

‘’The best moment of my career so far’’—that was the reaction of Henry Snee to his 88th minute winning goal at Banbury. What a great time to score your first goal for Hitchin Town but it was an even better achievement for Henry as he had only flown in from New York al 11.00am on Saturday after a six hour flight. I spoke to Henry this week to get the full story and I also discussed his football career to date so supporters get to know his background.

If you thought it was odd that Henry had flown to America during the football season there was a good reason. He suffered a bad injury pre-season that I will explain later and he never expected he would have returned to playing as early as he did so he booked his holiday in the full expectation that he would still be sidelined. He went to America on 27th October returning last Saturday after that six hour flight. He had contacted interim manager Michael Jones at training on Thursday to make himself available for the Banbury game. Henry said he suffered bad jet lag after the long flight and was struggling to keep his eyes open and he managed to get two hours sleep before his father dove him to Banbury. He was on the bench and gradually felt more alert. When the call came to enter the game you would never have known how tired he was as he made an immediate impact and ended up the hero of the hour. He said he certainly slept well that night!

An interesting fact Henry told me was that this was the fourth time he had flown back from America on a Saturday morning and played football in the afternoon and remarkably he scored in three of those games, including a goal when Shefford beat Grays in an important FA Cup tie.

Back to Henry’s injury and it happened in one of the first training sessions of the pre-season. He was diagnosed with Hoffa’s Fat Pad Syndrome which is a problem that affects one of three pads of fatty soft tissue that lies under the kneecap. There is no obvious treatment but Henry had an MRI scan followed by an injection in the knee to relieve the pain and then he needed to build strength in the knee. He was out for three months and that was so frustrating for him as he so wanted to make an impression at Hitchin. Even now he needs to keep working on his knee having played a lot of football in his career so far without knowing how carefully he needed to do his preparation. But he has great self belief and is now really looking to push himself to the best level he can achieve. He likes it at Hitchin and is really keen to make an impact.

Henry’s career in youth football started at Dunstable Town, AFC Dunstable and Barton Rovers often with his father as manager. He had a brief spell at the Luton Town academy when he was 13. He made his senior football debut at Barton in the 2017/18 season when he was 17. But to ensure he got regular fist team football he decided to join Shefford for the 2018/19 season. He started in the reserves in the Beds County League at step 8.He was called up to the first team in the 2019/20 season in the Beds Premier League Shefford won promotion to the South Midlands League Division1 with Henry scoring 38 goals.

Mark Burke invited Henry to join pre season training with Hitchin for the 2020/21 season but Henry suffered tendonitis and then covid stopped all football . For the 2021/22 season Henry came back to Hitchin and made his debut in the Southern League at Redditch in August 2021. He made 10 appearances but then decided to join Harpenden.. He found this difficult and decided he needed regular first team football so returned to Shefford. They won promotion to the South Midlands Premier Division and had a good FA Vase run. He stayed at Shefford for the 2022/23 season but was then approached by Brett Donnelly to move to Stotfold and the Southern League Central Division 1 for the 2023/24 season. He had a brilliant season scoring 27 goals and followed Brett to Top Field for this season. Who knows how different things may have turned out if Henry had not suffered such cruel bad luck with injury but he is determined to make up for lost time. He played a few games at Biggleswade United to get some match fitness before returning to Hitchin. He has come from step 8 to step 3 which is a massive jump and let us hope he has more improvement to come.

ACADEMY UPDATE BY MICHAEL JONES
On Wednesday 6th November we hosted V9 Academy at Top Field. We had had two weeks off from fixtures and we were coming off the back of a 6-1 defeat in our last game.

The game started at a frantic tempo and replicated a basketball match where both teams were attacking without having really any control of the game but after 8 minutes some good work from the young Canaries allowed Josh Beedell to find the back of the net from inside the box. The game continued at a fast pace and it was not until about 20 minutes in where we started to gain some control of the game.

Going into halftime Hitchin had a 1-0 lead.

3 minutes into the second half Josh Beedell scored his second after a ball over the top allowed him to race through and smash past the keeper but 5 minutes later the visitors reduced the deficit from a corner.

65 minutes in and Blue Joy scored a header from a corner to increase the scoreline to 3-1. The young Canaries then dominated the match from this point and with 5 minutes to go Josh Beedell completed his hatrick from the penalty spot. Final score 4-1 to Hitchin.

Stephen Gleeson had this to say “It’s great that the boys have shaken off a difficult defeat last game while having to contend with having 2 weeks off from games and a week off from training. The start of the game we played at a fast pace but once we settled down into our usual game, we controlled the ball while playing some really good football. We now look to build on this performance in training”

JUNIOR CANARIES UPDATE BY MICHAEL JONES
We are still getting plenty of youngsters to sign up to become Junior Canaries which is pleasing to see.

Issue 2 was sent out and we have had some excellent feedback from it and it’s great to see all of our Junior Canaries enjoying 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.

COMMUNITY UPDATE BY MARK BURKE

Garden House Hospice Care – Wellbeing Hub
Former Arsenal and Luton Town player Ian Allinson is hosting a Wellbeing Hub on behalf of Garden House Hospice Care in the Canary Club every Monday afternoon from 1.30pm – 3.30pm. The former Baldock Town Manager opened the Hub at the end of October and they are proving very popular.

These weekly drop-in sessions are an opportunity to:

Join us for a cup of tea and a chat
Talk and be listened to by one of our team members
Gain information about our therapies and support services
Join us in a seated exercise group
Take part in creative and fun activities that promote health and wellbeing
Feel more in control and live life to its greatest potential

For more information contact the hospice at cn@ghhospicecare.org.uk

It is hoped that the Football Club and Museum work together to deliver sessions for memory loss using the fantastic football collection donated by Ken and Vic Wayling seen with Sir Stanley Rous at the opening of the original Football Museum.

The Arena
The new dates for the coaching clinics at the Arena have been released and available to book via the https://www.Northhertsarena.co.uk

Wednesday evenings from 5.30-6.30pm we host a specific goalkeeping course called Safe Hands for children of all ages and abilities.

MERCHANDISE UPDATE BY CHRIS NEWBOLD

ONLINE SALES – DON’T MISS OUT
Just a reminder, if you want to buy a replica goalkeeper shirt as a Christmas present for someone, the deadline for ordering to ensure we can have them with you in good time for Christmas is the end of this Sunday, 10th November.

The deadline for the rest of the Fanwear online only range (Jade and Mint colour T Shirts and hoodies, Jackets) is the end of Sunday 1st December.

If you are buying our online range, please note that it is essential that you select the correct size (all measurements are available online in the item descriptions). We will be unable to exchange any of these items for different sizes as they are all individually manufactured.

Hoodies, Replica Goalkeeper Shirts and T Shirts will be sent out in the post. Jackets will need to be collected from the Club Shop on match days.

We also have a new pin badge on sale which is in the colours of our away kit for this season (purple and pink). Priced at £3.50, this is now on sale online (postage and packing £1.80), and will also be on sale in the Club Shop on match days.

If you have any specific questions about online merchandise sales, please email tickets@hitchintownfc.club and we’ll do our very best to help.

HTWFC UPDATE BY CALLUM ELLIS

FIXTURES
Sunday 10th November: 14:00
HTWFC v Wheathampstead Wanderers FC
St Christophers School, Barrington Road, Letchworth Garden, SG6 3JZ

Bedford Central v HTWFC Canaries
Mowsbury Park, MK41 8DQ

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

BY ROY IZZARD