FIXTURE
Saturday 23 March home to Bedworth League kick off 3.00pm. There is no midweek fixture

SERAPH SATURDAY
The Bedworth game is being dedicated to four-year-old Seraph Thomas. This brave young lad is suffering with high risk neuroblastoma which is an aggressive form of paediatric cancer and we’ll be fundraising to help towards the vital treatment costing £250,000. There will be bucket collections and the club will make a donation from the gate receipts. Please give generously to help young Seraph. His family will be attending the game and hopefully Seraph will be well enough to come along too. The Bedworth fundraising game was featured on TalkSport2 on Friday and there is an excellent article in The Comet about Seraph and his family, so we thank the local and national press for their support.

Tomorrow evening will see Hitchin Town FC and The Canary Club host 3 Magical Entertainers with some added comedy. Doors open at 7.30pm and tickets, which are just £10, can be purchased here or at The Canary Club. There will be a superb raffle held too. One very special prize has been donated by ex-Canary Ken Gillard who is the manager of the Arsenal under 18s side. He will be at the game tomorrow and when he heard about the fundraising for Seraph he immediately donated two tickets for the Europa League Quarter Final between Arsenal and Napoli. So many thanks Ken for your very kind donation.

We’re also incredible grateful for the following prizes which have also been donated for this raffle – thank you to all the suppliers:

  • £50 voucher for the Radcliffe Arms
  • £25 voucher for the Millstream
  • Two meals and bottle wine for the Three Moorhens
  • Two x 6 bottles of wine
  • Vouchers for a Stevenage FC fixture of choice

All proceeds from the raffle and evening event will be donated to Team Super Seraph. Please do come along and support the Club in its endeavour to raise as much money as possible for this very worthy cause. Raffle tickets can be bought at the Bedworth United game (just inside the turnstiles) as well as at the magic night, where the raffle will be drawn. Tickets will be £1 each.

As part of their players night out the Hitchin Town players will attend the magic night.

Please take a moment to watch the video about the incredibly brave young Seraph who we hope to raise lots of funds for tomorrow:

PLAYER NEWS

  • Noah Chesmain has reached the end of his loan agreement and has returned to Colchester.
  • Morgan Penfold has reached the end of his loan agreement and has returned to Peterborough.
  • Jack Green missed the Coalville game through injury but hopes to be fit for selection for the Bedworth game.
  • Alex Anderson is now back in full time training and available for selection.
  • Matt Nolan is still not ready to return to the side.
  • There are no other injury doubts for the Bedworth game.

DESSIE DA SILVA
After his recent move to Newcastle, Dessie has joined Dunston UTS who are top of the Northern League Division 1. We wish him well at his new club.

IMPROVEMENTS UPDATE
The work to extend the dressing rooms has been completed and will be inspected by the FA before the end of March. Work on the roof has continued but it is a major job so there is still more to do.

HITCHIN TOWN UNDER 19’S
The academy team did not have a game this week. On Wednesday 27 March they are at home to London Tigers at the Arena. Please check the Arena twitter feed for confirmation of the kick off time.

HITCHIN TOWN LADIES FC MATCH REPORT – BY CALLUM ELLIS
Evergreen Ladies v Hitchin Town Ladies FC

As we chase Hitchin Belles at the top of Division Two we played Evergreen Ladies in stormy / sunny Abbots Langley. With five players already out of the game due to injuries and work commitments we were left with just twelve. Captain Chaff pulled up in the warm with a calf issue which forced her out of the game so it was back to the drawing board in putting players in positions they wouldn’t normally play in! Welcome to management. The game got underway twenty minutes late due to comments about the clash of green shorts!

Within the first ten minutes it was end to end stuff. Evergreen sat two strikers in the offside position all game hoping to punish the Hitchin defence for any mistakes they made. The defence held their line and the flag kept being raised and their tactic wasn’t working and was frustrating. Wilfort took a run down the left wing and went past two Evergreen Ladies. The centre back came in and jumped into Wilfort with her studs up and the referee blew for a free kick. The free kick was sent in but was missed by all the incoming Hitchin players.

Evergreen won two consecutive corners but they were handled well by Thompson between the sticks.
Wyatt took the ball down the left wing and passed it across to Wilfort who shot just wide. Shortly after Cain-Murnane with a fierce shot sent the keeper flapping and kicking the ball away when Gash was closing her down.

GOAL EVERGREEN! Evergreen saw a small gap in the Hitchin defence and sent the striker one on one and she poked it into the bottom corner.
Whilst working against the wind, rain and hail Hitchin kept holding their line and stopped the score line increasing.

Half time.
There wasn’t much to report within the first fifteen minutes of the second half but it was Hitchin piling on the pressure and Evergreen had their backs against the wall. Hitchin won a corner and Cain-Murnane delivered but with everyone trying to get a foot on the ball it fell to an Evergreen player who sent the ball out of play. Hitchin pushed again and won another corner but Watson volleyed the ball over. Hitchin were on the attack again but Evergreen were doing anything and everything they could to stop us finding that equaliser. Hitchin pushed for another corner and Cain-Murnane found the boot of Wilfort but her shot went just over the bar.

The referee blew for full time and Hitchin had been unable to find an equaliser. With luck going against us from the start of the day it was just one of those games. We couldn’t ask for anymore from the ladies today. They battled hard to keep Evergreen at bay and they played some great football but sadly it wasn’t our day. With a handful of games left in Division Two and Hitchin Belles six points clear there is a lot of work to do.
We restart Sunday 24th March 2019 away to Garston 2nd XI in the semi-final of the Chris Renshaw Cup. Kick off at 13:30 at Bushey Sports Club, Aldenham Road, Bushey.

EJA TEAM NEWS – BY NICK CARR
Last weekend saw three of our four EJA teams in action with mixed fortunes.

The U13s defeated bottom club Biggleswade Town 3-1 in the U13 Blue Division with goals coming from Alfie Harrison, Sol Campbell and a penalty from Gorvan Bains.

Our U14s finally said goodbye to any hopes of landing the U14 Brown Division title after going down 3-0 at home to Braintree Town at North Herts College, to continue a disastrous run of recent form. They still have their sights on finishing in 2nd place and are in two cup semi-finals so, all in all it’s still a very successful season.

Finally, our U18s pulled off a fine 1-0 win over Biggleswade Town in the U18 Brown Division with Lewis Matthews scoring the goal that inflicted only a second league defeat of the season on the young Waders.

All four EJA teams are in action this weekend.

The U18s have a great chance to make the final of the county’s top cup competition at their age level when they host Berkhamsted Raiders on Sunday in the semifinal of the Herts FA County Cup, kickoff is 1pm at Top Field. Entry to the game is free and the Canary Club will be open for spectators before, during and after the game. Come along and cheer the boys on.

Our U16s are away to Cockfosters in the EJA Yellow League, kickoff 1:30pm in Mill Hill.

Our U14s have an immediate chance to avenge their loss to Braintree Town last weekend when they play the reverse fixture away on Sunday in a 12:30pm kickoff.

Finally, the U13s are at home to Soham Town Rangers at The Arena, Baldock with a 3pm kickoff.

MANAGER’S NOTES – BY MARK BURKE

KING’S LYNN TOWN
We travelled with a very youthful team to King’s Lynn. We had four teenagers and a further 3 players that are 21 and this included a 17 year old goalkeeper making his debut. We were without the suspended Michael Johnson and Lewis Ferrell while King’s Lynn were on a good run of form being unbeaten in 14 home games and well placed in third position in the league. The odds seemed stacked against us and going 2-0 down early on did not help our cause. However we showed tremendous character to reduce the deficit and went in 2-1 down at half time.

The second half saw us play some very attractive football and we were very unfortunate to concede a third goal. This did not dampen our spirits and we scored a second goal and had a goal bound effort headed on to the post to deny us an equaliser. But overall I was very pleased with the performance if not the result.

COALVILLE TOWN
The away game at Coalville was played at a tremendous pace and it was no different at Top Field on Wednesday. Coalville again demonstrated what a hard working, energetic and high quality side they are. I thought it was an entertaining game despite the lack of goals and I was particularly pleased with the second half performance. It was pleasing to add Coalville to our recent collection of play-off contender scalps.

Although we sit in the lower half of the table our recent form has seen us average two points a game in the last twelve fixtures and if we could have shown this return all season we would be in the play-off zone. In the current league table only the top two teams average two points a game. I am also very happy to have six clean sheets in our last eight games.

BEDWORTH UNITED
We play Bedworth on Saturday and although they look fairly certain to be relegated we will not be taking them lightly. The majority of their games have been close and it is important we are not complacent. We need to build on the momentum gained from Wednesday and look to finish the season as strongly as possible and push as far up the league table as possible.

Ahead of our next game against Bedworth United, Betvictor Football have given us odds of 1/3 to win. Click here to sign up.
Please note, club players and staff cannot bet on football matches.

NOAH CHESMAIN
We say farewell to Noah Chesmain as his loan spell has come to an end and I would like to thank him for his services this season. He has been brilliant for us with consistent performances and an excellent attitude all season. I would like to wish him the very best of luck for the future and hopefully we will see him again.

BY ROY IZZARD