Luton Town will face Hitchin Town FC in a testimonial match for Mark Burke, a legendary player and manager who has dedicated 40 years to the club. Mark Burke, affectionately known as 'Burkey', has represented Hitchin Town an incredible 1,296 times as a player or manager, making him arguably the most significant figure in the club's history. This special occasion, fittingly versus the club he represented as a youth team player, will provide supporters, players and friends of the club with the opportunity to show their appreciation for everything he has given to Hitchin Town over the past 40 years. Mark Burke joined Hitchin Town from Queens Park Rangers in 1985 after previously playing in the youth team of his hometown club Luton Town between 1982 and 1984. During his time with the Hatters youth team, he played alongside Tim Breaker, Stacey North, Mitchell Thomas, Garry Parker, Mark Stein, Kingsley Black and David Oldfield that all went on to play for David Pleat's first team at Luton and on to other top-flight teams. Mark was signed by Luton legend Alan West who was the player manager of Hitchin at the time, and he made his League debut on the opening day of the 1985 / 86 season away to Bognor Regis. On that day Mark played alongside a true Hitchin great in the shape of Paul Giggle who was to go on to be the record appearance maker for the Club. Mark established himself in the 1st team playing at Step 2 for several seasons before Hitchin slipped into Step 3 after a home defeat to Champions Yeovil Town resulting in relegation in the 1987/88 season. Mark became the Hitchin Captain under Steve Norris and Bill Baldry's reign in the early 1990s and after some near misses to gain promotion back into Step 2 Hitchin did eventually regain its status by winning the Isthmian Division 1 League Title with Mark lifting the trophy playing alongside former Luton players Paul Price, Littlewoods Cup winner Rob Johnson who had persuaded Hatters legend Ricky Hill to play a few matches under Manager Andy Melvin and his Assistant Robin Wainwright another former Hatter in the 1992 / 93 season. The mid 90's saw Mark lead the team with Andy as manager to one of the most successful times in the Club's history as the team went onto compete at the top end of the table at Step 2, took its first Football League scalp in the FA Cup when they beat Hereford United, repeating the feat the proceeding season by beating Bristol Rovers in front of the Match of the Day cameras at Top Field and by winning the Herts County Senior Cup for the first time in 20 years by defeating Boreham Wood 4-1 with Mark scoring the opening goal. Mark suffered a couple of serious knee injuries that kept him sidelined for a long period of time and unfortunately Hitchin were relegated to Step 3 again in the 1997 / 98 season. However this time Hitchin bounced straight back, and Mark lead the Canaries to promotion by finishing runners up to Canvey Island in the 1998 / 99 season. The team included Zema Abbey and Chris McMenamin who would go on to play for Norwich City and Coventry City respectively. Mark's final years saw him become a squad player that helped the promising young players that were coming through the newly formed scholarship programme before finally bowing out away to Stamford on the 30th April 2005 with Hitchin leading the league.