Good luck to our Men's 1s who fly out to Hamburg tomorrow to compete in the EHL for the first time since 2008. They face hosts and European heavyweights Harvestehuder on Saturday at 1715 before a second game against either Real Club De Polo or Egara on Sunday depending on the outcome of the Saturday games.
Vishal is looking forward to the challenge. "We are the underdogs," he acknowledged, "so there are no targets beyond competing and performing well. This will be a new experience for most of the boys and an amazing game to be involved in as your first taste of the EHL. It's a fantastic reward for our success last season so we want to enjoy the experience."
"We will be looking to those with EHL experience like Gavin Sommerville and Johnny Christie plus the other senior internationalists - Calum Duke, Rob Harwood and Andrew McConnell - but everyone needs to play their part at this level. Fortunately, we have a full squad. One or two of the boys were a worry but everyone came through a fitness test on Monday."
"Harvestehuder are a top class side with great players throughout their squad but if I had to pick one to watch I'd say Michael Korper. He has scored 20 goals in 13 EHL games which is the best ratio in the tournament's history and scored the winner when they won it in 2015."
You can watch all the games on the EHL stream and passes can be bought here www.eurohockeytv.org/en-int/page/event-pass-ehl-ko16.
*Credit to @Pug1967 for this exellent action shot from last week's game against Uddingston.