Milton Keynes-based charity Willen Hospice have appointed Rachel Medill as their new Chair of Trustees.

Rachel, who has previously founded a charity in the local area, was appointed earlier this month and succeeds the Hospice’s outgoing Chair Paul Davis, who leaves upon has completion of his eight-year term.

After spending the majority of her early career working as a director in marketing and communications in London, Rachel moved into the charity sector in search of a more fulfilling vocation.

For the last 20 years she has worked in a range of local, regional and national leadership roles, but her first priority was always to her local community in Milton Keynes.

It was this focus that led Rachel to set up Ride High, which uses horses to transform the lives of some of the most disadvantaged, disengaged and troubled local children. As Chief Executive of the charity, Rachel oversaw the acquisition of their 37-acre Loughton Manor site, which now welcomes around 120 vulnerable young people every week.

Rachel is a keen horsewoman herself and lives in Aspley Guise with her husband, Alan. Talking about her appointment to the charity, she said, “Everyone is touched at some time by the pain of the death of someone we love.

“At Willen the staff and volunteers give patients, and the people who love them, dignity and care at a time when they need it most. They do that every single day and in my own community. I’m so proud to have become part of this extraordinary charity and team of people.”

Willen Hospice Chief Executive, Kate Broadhurst, added, “We’re thrilled to have Rachel as part of our trustee team, bringing with her not only years of business experience, but a solid local charity background as a founder and chief executive herself. I know her input will be invaluable over the coming years as we fight for fairer funding for the Hospice to continue providing free specialist care and support for people in our community affected by life-limiting illness.

“On behalf of everyone at the Hospice, I’d like to thank Paul Davis for his dedication to our cause. The hard work he’s put into his role has helped steer the Hospice through many challenges and changes in the last eight years, and he will be greatly missed.”

Northampton Town are out of the Carabao Cup after a 2-0 defeat at Sixfields to Wycombe Wanderers.

Dan Udoh and a Luke Mbete own goal gave the visitors a two goal lead at half-time and although Wycombe had Alex Hartridge sent off, there was no way through for the home side.

Defeat means Northampton were knocked out of the EFL Cup at the First Round stage for the third season in a row.

A reshuffled Cobblers side featured five new signings for their first starts as they sought to bounce back from an injury time defeat to Bristol Rovers in their opening game of the season.

But the visitors started brighter, and they came close when debutant keeper Nik Tzanev was forced to keep out a header from Ryan Tafazolli.

Wycombe then opened the scoring with nine minutes on the clock, which came when Tyler Magloire was picked off by two Chairboys pressers. The loose ball fell for Richard Kone, who squared for Udoh to roll the ball home.

Northampton had opportunities with Cameron McGeehan seeing a header go wide and another shot pinged off target from a cross.

Wycombe retained danger and would eventually find a second in first half stoppage time. It had nearly come their way from a corner, with Kone and Tafazolli both striking the bar in a melee at a corner.

But Wycombe maintained pressure and had a break of the ball go their way as Joe Low’s cross took a big deflection off debutant Mbete that saw it ricochet past Tzanev into the back of the net.

A brief flurry of chances saw McGeehan and the visitor’s Tyreeq Bakinson miss chances at either end, but for much of the second half, chances were at more of a premium.

Wycombe were reduced to ten men with just over ten minutes to play, as defender Hartridge was judged to have wasted time when preparing to take a throw-in and earned a second yellow.

But any notion Northampton would have a man advantage lasted a few moments, as Mbete suffered a game-ending injury after all changes were made.

Northampton were duly unable to get a goal back to make things interesting, and Jon Brady’s side will now look to get off the mark for the new season when they host Exeter on Saturday.

Luton Town will visit fellow Championship side Queens Park Rangers in the second round of the Carabao Cup.

Having been given a bye for the first round, the Hatters’ first assignment in this season’s Carabao Cup sees them travel to Loftus Road for a tie that will take place in the week beginning August 26th 2024.

A precise date, kick-off time, ticket information and TV coverage details for the fixture will all be confirmed in due course.

QPR booked their place in the Second Round on Tuesday (13/08) as they beat League One side Cambridge United 2-1 at the Abbey Stadium.

The Hoops finished 18th in last season’s Championship, with Luton scheduled to face the West London-based club in the league this season.

Luton host QPR on Friday 30th August in a Championship game, meaning Luton and QPR will face one another twice in less than a week, with Luton’s league visit to QPR taking place in January.

MK Dons were knocked out of the Carabao Cup after a 5-0 defeat by Championship outfit Watford.

Mattie Pollock, a Tom Ince hat-trick and Kwadwo Baah were the scorers for the Hornets, who advanced into Round Two and saw MK Dons knocked out of the competition in Round One for the second season in a row.

Defeat meant the Dons were unable to repeat their victory at Vicarage Road when they knocked Watford out of the Carabao Cup at the same stage of the competition two years ago.

A reshuffled Dons side that took to the field featured 8 changes to the starting line-up from defeat to Bradford City on the opening day of the season.

Watford had also opted to make changes to the side that beat Millwall on the opening day of the Championship season, and keeper Jonathan Bond made an early stop to keep out Tommy Leigh’s ambitious long-range lob.

But the second tier side largely controlled possession and began to knock on the door the longer the first half wore on.

Ince missed an early chance when he burst through and lobbed Nathan Harness, only for his shot to miss the target.

Watford then opened the scoring with 24 minutes on the clock. An Ince corner picked out captain Pollock, who saw a looping header creep over Harness and two Dons defenders on the line before arcing into the back of the net.

Tom Dele-Bashiru saw a drive kept out by Harness later in the first half after an initial shot had been blocked, but the home side moved 2-0 up in first half stoppage time.

A long pass released Ryan Andrews behind the Dons defender, and he squared for Ince, with the son of former Dons boss Paul in the right place to score a tap-in.

MK Dons made a triple change at half-time and the visitors duly began to offer more going forward, with Bond making saves to deny Joe Tomlinson and sub Stephen Wearne.

But the Dons weren’t able to find a goal back to reduce the deficit, and instead three goals in ten minutes just after the hour mark firmly took the game away from the Dons.

Watford’s third goal came in the 64th minute, as a pass from Mamadou Doumbia released Baah, and his strike from an angle went through Harness and in for 3-0.

It was quickly followed by the goal that made it 4-0, when Ince collected the loose ball and thumped a shot that Harness was again unable to prevent from going in.

A fifth then followed a few moments later, which saw Ince pick up a hat-trick when he scored the rebound after Harness could only parry Dele-Bashiru’s initial shot.

The rest of the game duly passed without much incident, with the Dons’ attention now turning to get a first competitive win of the new season on Saturday when they travel to play Colchester United in Essex.