WESTERN HEAD FOR LOUSADA IN CONFIDENT MOOD

Western head off to Lousada (Portugal) for the EuroHockey indoor club challenge 1 tournament with a spring in their step, the Auchenhowie side have just retained their Scottish championship title with a 9-6 win over Inverleith. Consequently, they are playing for their own European destiny.

There is an Eastern European flavour to their pool opposition – the Scots will face FHC Slavia 1921 (Bulgaria) and HK Triglav Predanovci (Slovenia) on Friday and then Epitok HC (Hungary) the following day. The initial target is to finish in the top two to enter the promotion pool, and then finish in the top two to earn promotion.

So winning promotion from the Challenge 1 to the second tier Trophy competition has to be coach Vishal Marwaha`s main target.

Vishal admitted not knowing too much about the opposition. He said: “We have some footage of a couple of the teams, but we will have to analyse the majority of the teams as we go through the tournament.”

But nevertheless, Vishal confirmed that the squad were going to Lousada with an air of confidence. “The mood is upbeat and positive especially after winning the title. We are really looking forward to the tournament in Lousada.”

And winning the Scottish championship three times in the last four attempts has given Western the confidence to repeat that success in Europe.

Vishal commented: “Winning the Gala final was important from two aspects. Firstly, we wanted to retain the title and set that as our target at the start of the season. Second it was important to qualify for the Gala Day to help our Euro preparation otherwise we would have had two weekends of non-competitive action before heading to Lousada.”

Vishal also confirmed that he has a full squad travelling to Lousada. That means that the strikers who scored nine against Inverleith – captain Rob Harwood and Andrew McConnell with hat-tricks and a double from Fraser Moran – can be let loose against the unsuspecting teams from Eastern Europe.

Before the Gala Finals captain Rob Harwood did say that “we feel our best firm is still to come this season,” so let`s hope that his prediction comes to further fruition in Lousada.

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