County preview: Blues bid for back-to-back hockey and football success

The Shetland hockey inter-county team. Photo: Brian Gray

Shetland’s hockey and football teams head to Kirkwall tomorrow determined to retain their titles.

For the first time in 20 years, the hockey side go to Orkney looking to defend the Lady Hamilton Cup they won comprehensively last year.

It is more than 40 years since Shetland won the hockey away from home, and coach Derek Leask said his side will go all out for the win in the face of a likely Orkney backlash.

“Our style of play hasn’t changed, we’ll still go out and attack Orkney,” he said.

“At times in the past we might have sat back and tried to snatch a goal on the break.

“But we have a really attacking team with young, fit players who will go at it.”

Leask is expecting a very different game against their wounded opponents, who lost 6-0 last year, tomorrow afternoon.

“Orkney have been training and working really, really, hard,” he said.

“We’re definitely going there to try and win in Orkney for the first time since 1982.

“There’s no doubt that it’s going to be hard, and that Orkney are going to be really up for it.”

Pass back at the Pickaquoy Centre is at 12.30pm tomorrow.

For the football team, on the other hand, they have won on their last two visits to Orkney.

The reds are still reeling from a historic 8-0 defeat on Shetland’s last visit south two years ago, and blues manager Neil Fenwick is expecting a tough test tomorrow afternoon.

“I think they’ll be a pretty tricky side,” he said.

“It’ll be tough – they’ve now got a relatively young squad, and Liam Delday being back is a big boost for them.

“I’m not expecting as many goals as the past few years.”

Shetland come into the fixture looking to win the Milne Cup for a third successive year, something they last did in 2015, after a 6-1 success last September.

Fenwick has named an experienced squad of 16, with just Celtic’s Jack Simpson and Whitedale’s Gary Scott in line for a first cap.

Celtic’s Connor Regan could make his first appearance in the county since Shetland made it three-in-a-row in 2015, having endured serious injuries for the past decade.

The Shetland manager said Regan, a former team-mate, “fully deserves his place” in the squad after a return to form for the league leaders.

Kick-off is at 3.30pm at Kirkwall’s Bignold Park tomorrow.

The Shetland Times will provide online coverage of both matches before, during and after the games.

Read the full interviews in today’s Shetland Times.