Haddington Athletic F.C.

Haddington Athletic

Full name	Haddington Athletic Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Hi-His
Founded	1939
Ground	Millfield Park, Haddington
Ground Capacity	500
Chairman	Drew Donaldson
Co-managers	Brian Johnston & Kevin Twaddle
League	SJFA East Premier League
2015–16	SJFA East Premier League, 5th
Home colours Away colours

Haddington Athletic Football Club are a Scottish junior football club based in Haddington, the county town of East Lothian.

The club play in the SJFA East Region. For the 2015–16 season, the club will compete in the Premier league, the second tier of the East league setup.

Nicknamed the Hi-His, The club were founded in 1939 and play their home matches at Millfield Park. The ground has changing and committee facilities, added with help from the local council. There is a covered shelter for the 30 or 40 or so regular supporters. Reasons for low crowds include the fact that the town is predominantly a Rugby Union stronghold.

The team are managed since July 2016 by Brian Johnston and Kevin Twaddle.^[1]

Honours

• East Section League Champions: 1956–57
• East Region South Division Champions: 2014–15
• East Region 2nd Division Champions: 1998–99
• East of Scotland Cup Winners: 1941, 1957, 1973
• Fife and Lothians Cup Winners: 1940
• Brown Cup Winners: 1959
• Thornton Shield Winners: 1940, 1941, 1947
• St Michaels Cup Winners: 1950, 1959
• Laidlaw Cup Winners: 1979

Notable former players

A number of players have used Haddington as a stepping stone to bigger and better things. The following players made the grade in the Senior game:

• John Scott to Third Lanark
• Johnny Gilhooley to Cowdenbeath
• Bobby Wood to Hibernian
• Dougie Armstrong and Tom McKenzie to Heart of Midlothian
• Mitchell Barclay to Bournemouth in England
• Alex McCrae to Heart of Midlothian (1941), Charlton Athletic (1947), Middlesbrough (1948), Falkirk (1953) and (as player/manager) Ballymena United (1957). He returned to Falkirk as manager in 1960.

November 2007 saw Polish midfielder Lukasz Rusin become the first Haddington player in recent times to seek success in the higher grade when he joined Brechin City for a short spell. However, his progression was hampered by a persistent injury and Rusin took some time away from the game before returning to Junior football with Spartans for the 2011–12 season

In July 2012, prolific striker Sean Jamieson signed for East Fife after a successful trial period. In two seasons for the Hi His, Jamieson scored 64 times in 72 appearances (three as substitute)

Junior Internationalists

In 1948, Dougie Armstrong became the Club's only Junior internationalist player when he played for Scotland against a Republic of Ireland team.

Current squad

As of 31 Mar 2015

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player GK Derek Polowyj DF Graham Gallagher DF Chris Gordon DF Matthew Lynch DF James McPartlin DF Michael Motion DF Martin Noble DF Derek Slight DF Zach Szemis

No. Position Player MF Bob Berry MF Michael Fairnie MF Chris Gray MF Arran Ponton MF Mark Smith FW Kyle Mitchell (loan) FW Joe Murray FW Andrew Sinclair FW Scott Wright

Final League Positions

The Hi-His' final league positions since the introduction of the South Division in season 2006–07 are shown in the table below:

Final league positions between the introduction of the Lothians Division Two in season 2002–03 and its replacement by the South Division are shown in the table below:

Prior to the reconstruction of the 2002–03 season, the East Region referred only to the area covered by the Lothians and part of Clackmannanshire. The league for this region was divided into two divisions with promotion and relegation in the normal fashion between the two. Haddington Athletic's final league positions for the last few years of this competition are shown in the table below:

References

External links

• The Hi-His' official website