Hertford Town
Hertford Town
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Hertford Town
FOOTBALL CLUB
Hertford Town FC secured promotion last season and has been
working hard during the off-season to make sure that they are
ready for the new campaign. Football Focus Magazine recently
caught up with their Chairman Peter Sinclair to find out more
about how they are getting along.
Involvement The Role
He told us, “I first joined Hertford Town FC nine years ago,
the attraction (although not the right word - more a sense of
duty to the people who love and support the club) was that
the club had been under a period of disarray and my first job
was to put the club back on an even keel as it was on the brink
of folding.
From there we, as a club, have taken great strides - in the first
instance saving the club from relegation, then building over a
number of years a structure to return the club to the Bostick
League where we feel we belong, given the great support and
gates that we have week in week out at Hertingfordbury Park.” “Being a chairman is a balancing act between so many
different people and roles around the club, I’d be lying if I
didn’t say this was the most challenging part of my job - I’m
sure every chairman at this level would say that we couldn’t
function without the volunteers that involve themselves so
heavily for the sake of their community club.
The manager, coaches and playing staff obviously worked
so hard to get us promoted last season and that is where the
rewards lie for me - we try to offer as much as we can for them
to be successful, with that success the fans walk away happy
and that’s all I can ask from this role.”
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Atmosphere
“We have had an excellent close season at the club;
everyone here has been pulling their weight to get the
club ready for our return to the Bostick League for the first
time since 2002. The players look sharp and very focused
for the forthcoming campa ign, if you can’t get excited by
the forthcoming challenges this season will bring then you
shouldn’t be involved in football!”
This Season
“The players due to their conditioning work by the coaching
staff look more than ready to hold their own in the Bostick.
We have tested ourselves against higher league opposition in
friendlies and I am very confident that we are in great shape.
Our manager Gavin Kelsey summed up a lot of our feelings
in our local newspaper interview - ‘there’s no real pressure
on us - we can go in it with a smile on our face and enjoy
ourselves.’ I think that’s the same for all of us involved with
the club, coaches, players, fans - lets enjoy it, get the gates up
to 300+ and cheer our team on week in week out.”
Youth
“Youth football is key for us, we have our EJA sides from
U14 level upwards, then our newly formed U18 side and
U25 development squads. Again the coaches and volunteers
involved with all of these sides are striving to get their boys
into a position whereby they are ready for the next level - many
of our U25 players have begun to break into the first team,
making the step into a first team squad which is a very hard
thing to do without great coaching and preparation through
each level of the club.”
Community
“This is absolutely a community club. We involve ourselves
with every part of the community, we have both Inclusive
and over 50’s Walking Football team; Stevenage Ladies play
Mick’s Barbers have been looking after the crowning
glory of the great and the good of Hertford for over 30
years. Renowned for traditional service amongst their
established clientele, they offer “cutting edge” styling for the
generations, looking to make their mark on the world.
Proud sponsors of Hertford Town FC
01992 589 089 | www.micksbarbers.co.uk
2 Green Dragon Yard, Hertford, Herts SG14 1PT
at HTFC, our town’s local youth sides are all involved with
the club and we try and give as much back to our town as we
possibly can. Our gates have risen steadily season by season
and I believe that is down to us listening to our fans and
involving them in their community club.”
Challenges
“Hertingfordbury Park as we know it was built as a modern
stadium in the 1950’s. In 1965 our inaugural floodlit match
featured many famous professionals of the 50’s and 60’s, Jack
Kelsey, Danny Blanchflower, Dave Mackay, Jimmy Hill and
Tommy Docherty to name but a few, but the stadium is now
sixty years old and in need of modernisation. We as a club
need to raise as much money as possible for this modernisation
to take place, this is a five year plan that we as a community
need to gather momentum behind.”
Ambitions
“We would obviously love to continue our journey to get
ourselves as high as we can in the football pyramid, although, I
have been involved in football for 50+ years and know that this
is easier said than done!”
www.footballfocusmag.com
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