THE head coach of Aberdour Shinty Club hopes her players can follow the lead of the club’s P4/5 team by winning silverware in the new season.

Lisa MacColl and her squad will travel north to face Inverness in their first pre-season match on Saturday and revealed that they have league and cup glory in their sights.

The Silver Sands club, which is celebrating its 15th year of existence, enjoyed success on Saturday as six of their talented youngsters were crowned winners of the six-a-side Central Scotland Youth Shinty Association Indoor League at the weekend.

Aberdour won all nine of their matches to make it through to the National Finals in Fort William, which will be played on February 27, and MacColl said: “They have come on massively and since the October holidays, they have put in a lot of work.

“We’ve been telling them that if you put in the effort, you’ll get your rewards and to win nine games when you’re 8-10, especially when they won all eight then had to play-off against the second placed team, was a test of their concentration, especially towards the end.

“They’ll go to Fort William and play the other regional winners which is a great achievement for them.

“I hope that will be the start of a successful year for us and the guys are raring to go for pre-season.

“There has been some good preparation done by the seniors and the lads have set themselves targets to challenge for the Balliemore Cup and finish well in the league. I think they’re realistic; if we’re going to really challenge for the league then I think that this is the year to do it because we’ve got a good squad and made a couple of new additions.

“I think we will be able to maintain the strength of the first team without harming the seconds, and it won’t be a case of picking players because they are available – we’ll be able to pick a squad.”

Aberdour, who begin their South Division One campaign with a home match against Kyles Athletic seconds on March 5, were unable to recover from a poor start to challenge for promotion but ended the 2015 campaign in a good run of form.

MacColl though believes they still have momentum from that winning end to the season and said that the club are inching closer to “where we want to be” just five years since they entered the national shinty league set-up for the first time.

She continued: “It’s maybe taken us 15 years to get to where we want to be, but we’re getting closer and I think we can only go on from here. We’re working really hard to grow the club and the steps we have made in 15 years are quite significant with the success we’ve had.

“The guys are really up for it, but we have to make sure that the enthusiasm and commitment they have now continues into the season.

“We lost a couple of silly games at the start of last season, but I think we’re carrying momentum and giving ourselves a lift with the way we ended it.

“We have competition for places which creates a knock-on effect of having more commitment and playing consistently to stay in the team.”