With a 1-0 victory over Hillhead in the play-off yesterday, Highland Ladies have won promotion into the first division of the women’s Subway national league for the first time in their history.
The Inverness-based club left it late in the game before securing their place in the top flight of Scottish hockey. Their goal was scored by their captain, Sharon Young, at a penalty corner three minutes from time, and it was enough to send them into celebratory mode when the final whistle went.
In the men’s play-off, Edinburgh University trampled over Stepps to claim the final place in the top division. the winning margin was 4-1, though it was Stepps who opened with a goal by Andrew McDonald. Simon Sampson levelled for the students, but their hat-trick hero was Fraser Hirst, who deflected in a penalty corner and converted two penalty strokes to chalk up a convincing victory and leave the Lanarkshire club’s dreams of returning to top-level glory in tatters.
In the Division 2 play-offs, there were extremely close encounters before George Heriots and Alpha Data Carnegie prevailed over Glasgow University and Giffrnock respectively.
Andy Doyle was the Carnegie hero with two goals in normal time and the winning strike in the penalty shoot-out, after the two sides had shared eight goals in normal time. Mike Speed opened for Giffnock to lead at the interval, but Doyle equalised early in the second half.
When Speed and Dave Benson gave the East Renfrewshire side a 3-1 lead, it looked curtains for the Fifers. But in this ding-dong affair Carnegie retaliated with goals from Andy Lambert, Steve Chalmers and Doyle again to take a 4-3 advantage. The affair went to penalties when Giffnock`s Scott Brown tied up the scoring at 4-4.
The first round of the penalty shoot-out ended 3-3. Sam Goldie and Scott Brown then scored in the sudden-death competition, but the winner came from Doyle after Giffnock missed from the spot.
Helen Brady gave George Heriots a two-goal lead against Glasgow University, but the students retaliated through Lee-Ann Penny to bring the score back to 2-1. The killer came from Hannah Cockburn in 53 minutes and, although Penny got a late consolation for the students, the Edinburgh outfit held on for a 3-2 victory and promotion.
Meanwhile, in the first match of a two-game under-18 series at Bellahouston, Scotland defeated Ireland 2-0. CALA Edinburgh striker Daniele Johnstone opened when she converted a cross from Kirsty Wilson past the Irish keeper. Johnstone was again involved in the second just before the interval, when she was taken out in the circle, and Giffnock`s Louise Fleming converted from the spot.
Coach Rhona Simpson decided to use yesterday’s second game to experiment with players in different positions. The result was defeat by 6-0, but the team manager declared that it would now be much easier to reduce the squad from 24 to the 20 who will go to Poland next month.
