Posted by Tony Carruthers
on 28/4/2011, 1:40:52, in reply to "Re: Mr Chairman please"
2.126.249.200
Now the dust is starting to settle on Monday’s events, I wish to make the following known to Hitchin [and Arlesey Town] supporters.
First of all, we congratulate Arlesey on their championship triumph. However hard it was to take, losing on our own ground to local rivals, we accept gracefully, they had the strongest and deepest squad. Their achievement in overturning the massive lead we had at the top for so long and then recovering from a nine-point deduction, deserves applause.
For the past few days, I have been subjected to abuse, accusations and hints that I, somehow, was involved in Arlesey losing nine points. As you would have seen on the Southern League website, there was a meeting of the League board that made that decision. I was not at this meeting – in fact, I was excluded from it as there was conflict. Arlesey Town’s officials knew this was the case as they were involved in the meeting.
I was only told of the nine point deduction on Saturday April 23 at 5pm – after our game with North Greenford. Hitchin fans at North Greenford will be aware of this as I included them in the process.
In football, emotions run high, but we would not wish to see a repeat of what happened at Top Field on Monday after the game. I would like to make it very clear that Hitchin Town does not tolerate behaviour of this kind from its own players. We accept that some of what we saw was “heat of the moment”, but the reaction may have been fuelled by a misunderstanding that Hitchin Town and myself were in some way connected to Arlesey’s loss of points. This was not the case.
I am proud of the restraint shown by our players and our supporters in the face of provocation and I think this reflects the relative harmony we have at Hitchin. Thank you for your support in 2010-11 and let’s see if we can reach the Premier Division via the play-offs.
Regards
Terry Barratt
SAYS IT ALL REALLY.... TERRY BARRATT TRUE GENT OF THE GAME
Message Thread | Skip to this response ↓
« Back to index