We provide a warm welcome to everyone connected to Hebburn Town Football club and we hope you enjoy your visit to the Eco-Power Stadium. Our earlier encounter against Hebburn was a stand-out performance and result. It was a brilliant effort to win 5-1, however i know today’s game will be much more competitive and closer in score line, as Hebburn have had some good results recently and are a much stronger outfit than when we played them last. I took advantage of our game being called against Brighouse Town to go watch them against Liversedge. For large parts of the game, they had good possession and played some excellent football but without hurting or creating too many chances. Today, we will have to be defensively disciplined and organised and be clinical in attack to gain all 3 points.
Recent performances have been positive, with a great win against Worksop Town at home and then an unfortunate loss against the top side in the league – Marske United. In both games, and the one against Shildon we have shown that we are able to compete and better the top 6 teams in the league. We must use this as motivation as we go into to a critical period of games against teams around and below us. In the next 7 games, we play 5 at home so we are aiming to maintain our good home form and gain maximum points from the 5 games and pick up points in our two away games.
In terms or personnel, we were disappointed to see Ed Hall leave the club. We tried everything we could to keep him but the opportunity to play much closer to home was too big a draw for him. We cannot thank him enough for his commitment and quality during our time at the club, and wish him well for the future. In terms of Goalkeepers, we have been successful in signing Mikey Roxbrough from Huddersfield Town on loan until the end of the season. He is a young goalkeeper who is highly rated by the goalkeeper coaches at the Terriers and has non league experience previously going on loan to Stockton Town, Billingham Town and most recently Emley. We welcome him to the club and hope the opportunity is positive for all parties involved. We have further strengthened our squad with Harrison Foulstone, who was with the club briefly pre-COVID. Harrison is an ex-Sheffield United Scholar who returned from America before Christmas and is someone who can operate in 2/3 positions and has his best years in football ahead of him.
In other news, it was pleasing to be able to release our player pathway programme for players to progress from the junior ranks and U18 football into men’s football for the reserves and eventually the first team. A lot of work has gone on behind the scenes to put this in place and we hope in the long term we see the results of this, as the most successful way to keep a club progressing is to grow and develop your own talent to represent the club at first team level.
Finally, thank you for everyone who has joined our members club. It is a great initiative that will generate income and opportunities for the club both on and off the pitch. It is a privilege to be able to lead this football club as First team manager and see the hard work, commitment and effort by a large number of people to make sure we have a progressive, sustainable and successful football club.
Enjoy the game,
Ian
