Highland Hockey Club celebrate promotion after victory in play-off final.
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
HIGHLAND Hockey Club are moving on up in Scottish hockey after they secured promotion by winning a play-off final.
The Inverness club defeated Falkirk and Linlithgow 4-0 to win promotion to Women’s Championship League One Division A
Highland finished second in Division B which qualified them for the play-off final before proving too good for their opponents who finished second bottom of Division A.
First team coach and director of hockey Chris Smith says it was terrific performance by the team and they are now looking forward to playing at a higher level next season.
He said: “The girls were nervous beforehand as we had been working hard towards this.
“We didn’t play well in the first quarter. But they settled down and we scored two goals before half time and from there we were comfortable and got two goals after that.
“It is a fantastic achievement as we have to travel everywhere across the country to play our games.
“To give the girls a chance to play at a higher level is fantastic. We are going to play some really good teams next season which we have never done before.”
Highland Hockey Club have over 200 members and have three senior teams, which include two women’s teams and one men’s team who play and train at Bught Park Astro.
Smith says the club are looking forward to next season which starts in September, but social leagues are planned during the summer and the squad are also going on a trip to Orkney this weekend.
He says they are looking forward to the challenge of playing a higher level and believes they can have another successful season.
He said: “We are looking to build on last year and our aim is to maintain our status in that division.
“We are confident as this season we played a team two leagues higher up in the cup and beat them 4-0.
“Potentially we can achieve more and we will see where we can go, but these are some exciting times for the club.”
