City are delighted to announce that two more players have commited themselves to the cause for next season's adventure in Conference 2.

Defender Craig Pope and winger Luke Hughes yesterday signed on for another 12 months. Both are terrific signings and a big part of Gary Roberts' plans for next year. Craig has declared that he's looking forward to a better season than last as he wants to get fitter!!

Talks with other members of last season's squad are ongoing.

Hayes Raise
The club have announced a small increase in admission prices for next season's entry into Conference Division One South. The increase, the first for several years, sees adult admission go up to £9; however the concession price is pegged at £5, whilst matchday programmes will remain at £2.

In order to alleviate the effect of the price rise for regular supporters, the club are this year launching an "Early Bird" season ticket price for tickets purchased before 30th June. Prior to that date, adult season tickets, which give admission to all 21 league games plus pre-season friendlies, will cost £150 with concessions at £85. From 1st July the prices will be £170 and £95 respectively, which still reflect a healthy discount on the match-by-match cost.

Season ticket application forms can be downloaded from here.
Note: This is a .pdf file, which requires the free Acrobat Reader plug-in by Adobe in order to access. This plug-in is available for download by clicking on this link.

Hendon Withdraw

Hendon have withdrawn from the Conference South.

There Chairman made this statement: The following statement has been released to the press this afternoon by club chairman Ivor Arbiter.

"The decision by myself and the Board to decline the invitation to join the newly formed Conference South was a very hard one to make. But as Chairman it is my duty to oversee and safeguard the future development of the club, and with the move to the Copthall Stadium in Hendon we have very positive plans for the future.

"At Hendon Football Club we are very proud of our playing achievements and the success that our manger Dave Anderson and his players have brought to the club in recent years. The Arbiter Group have been supporting the club financially for almost 10 years and we are all very grateful to them for their support.

"Our future at Copthall should be very exciting and the stadium will be a first class facility with a solid infrastructure to build upon, but while our loyal supporters have, as always, been magnificent, it is very important that we attract more spectators to our home games.

"Taking a place in the Conference South in the near future remains our ambition and when that opportunity arises it is hoped that Hendon Football Club will be in a strong stable financial position and our team will be built on a solid financial base."

HILL SETS HIS MARKER

The 2003/04 season isn’t yet completed but already Ryman League Premier Division club Hornchurch have put down their marker as early favourites for the inagural Conference South title.

The Urchins, with new manager Garry Hill now bedded-in, have formulated their retained list and have already snapped up three quality new players for the 2004/05 campaign, including the appointment of a vastly experienced player-coach.

Hill’s list of released players includes one or two surprises, most notably those of former West Ham, Bournemouth and Northern Ireland midfielder Keith Rowland and striker Vinnie John.

As well as Rowland and John, Ollie Adedeji, Lee Williams, Danny Cowley, John Bradley, Jon Keeling, Dave McCarthy and ex-England semi-professional international striker Gary Abbott have also been deemed as surplus to requirements by Hill, while former Canvey Island forward Bertie Brayley, Danny Kerrigan and Tony Maynard have been transfer-listed.

New contracts have been awarded to goalkeeper Danny Gay, Andy Douglas, Scott Gooding, Robert Martin and Chris Sorhaindo, whilst Andrew Martin has been invited back for pre-season training with a view to a new contract and Jamie Southon is to hold further talks with Hill with regard to accepting full-time terms.

Hill is looking to sign at least seven more new players to compliment the three new signings made already in Tarkan Mustafa, who followed the manager from his former club Dagenham & Redbridge, vastly experienced defender Mark Venus, who has joined as player-coach, and Chester City’s former Norwich and Rushden & Diamonds midfielder Shaun Carey.

Venus (pictured) made over 500 League appearances with home-town club Hartlepool, Leicester, Wolves, Ipswich and Cambridge United

However, after a fall out at the Abbey Stadium following the departure of manager John Taylor, Venus made himself unavailable for selection and he joined Hill at Dagenham & Redbridge on a month's loan towards the end of the season.

Midfielder Carey was on Burton Albion boss Nigel Clough’s list of possible signings after being released by Conference champions Chester City.

However, the Irishman has opted to drop down a division after being made an "unbelievable" offer by the Urchins.

5 SIGN ON WITH CITY

Yesterday afternoon and evening, Gary Roberts, Jez George and myself have met with various players, and we are delighted to announce that we have signed the following players on one year contracts for next season: Matt Langston, Lee Chaffey, Rob Miller, Lewis Bailey and Carl Williams.
 
There is no need for anyone to speculate yet on who has not signed, who we are targeting, who might have turned us down or who is leaving etc. We are pleased that we have got a 100% success rate on the players who we want, and other meetings are lined up throughout the next few days. Added to Rob Nightingale, Robbie Simpson and Alan Calton, we're already in a far better position than we were during last pre-season, and we are very pleased about that.

Matt Langston goes into hospital soon for a hernia operation and CCFC will pay for that. We can't really afford this, but we are delighted with Matt and wish him a speedy recovery that will see him playing at the start of next term.
 
This is not a sophisticated club statement, as we don't have the time, but we wanted to let our fans know as soon as possible. Watch this space for more signings!

Webmaster@conf.zzn.com

Email me if anything is wrong and it will be fixed!

© Confnetwork 2004