17th July 2005

Pre-season training underway

With six training sessions now under his belt, Manage Geoff O'Vell is pleased with the tremendous response he has had, and over 40 players have already signed SSMFL forms for next season. There is still plenty of scope for more players to come and join the sessions which take place at The Country Club in Cheshunt every Monday and Wednesday starting at 7.30 p.m, and at Goffs Lane playing fields on Saturday morning. 

16th July 2005

Optimism at AGM

At last Thursday's AGM there was optimism for the 2006/07 season with no fewer than 40 players turning up for the first couple of training sessions. There is a good pre-season mood and Manager Geoff O'Vell has added to his backroom team by appointing Herman Dyer and Colin Perkins as his Assistants, together with one of last season's successes, Steve Mair. It is expected that Steve will be with Geoff at most of the First Team matches this season, with Herman and Colin running the Reserves. However, the structure will be such that the personnel will be able to slot in to either team when circumstances demand it. Over forty players have already committed themselves to the playing squads, a situation previously unprecedented for this stage of the pre-season merry-go-round. Geoff O'Vell is also delighted that Physio, Louisa Scott, will be part of his team again this coming season. There were two significant changes to the Officers of the Club for the 2006/07 season, the main one being the retirement of Hon. Secretary Brenda Timpson after 10 years in the role. Her replacement is Programme Editor Jane Sinden, who will still retain the Programme responsibilities, but she has handed the Reserves Team Secretary reins to the ever reliable Neil Conner. A number of testing pre-season friendlies have been arranged, but the Club has been let down by a couple of clubs so there are still spare dates for friendlies, especially for the Reserves.

The Club is also delighted to announce that after a break of just one season, a Hoddesdon Town Under-18 side has once again been formed. Joint Managers Soner Ali and Paul Threadgold have an excellent squad of players that will also be made available to the Senior teams, and several of the boys have already impressed the Management Team at training. Secretary Ron McCaig and Assistant Manager Roger Burbridge make up the rest of the Under-18 organisation, and everybody is looking forward to the Wednesday night games at Lowfield which should start in late September.