Hockey: Inverleith’s Patrick Christie eyes gold despite trip into ‘unknown’

Inverleith captain Patrick Christie believes his men go into the unknown in the EuroHockey Indoor Club Challenge 1 group, which starts in Norway today.

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The dethroned Scottish indoor champions open their campaign against Slovakian side S K Senkvice.

Later today they square-up to A D Lousada from Portugal and finish their Pool A games against Norwegian side Kringsja Sports Klubb tomorrow morning.

Then the Scots play cross-over ties depending on where they finish in the pool.

Inverleith finished third in the recent Scottish indoor league behind winners Western Wildcats and runners-up Grove Menzieshill.

Edinburgh-born Christie said they took part in practice matches in Oslo and admitted: “We could turn up and find a side who have six ex-Bundesliga players in their line-up as we simply don’t know the opposition well enough. However, I believe anything other than a gold medal and we’ll have underperformed as I think we have a team good enough to get promoted.”