2021–22 Highland Football League

Football league season

Breedon Highland League
Season	2021–22
Dates	24 July 2021 – 23 April 2022
Champions	Fraserburgh
Relegated	Fort William
Matches played	306
Goals scored	1,223 (4 per match)
Biggest home win	Fraserburgh 12–0 Fort William (11 December 2021)
Biggest away win	Fort William 0–8 Brora Rangers (21 August 2021) Forres Mechanics 0–8 Brora Rangers (9 March 2022)
Highest scoring	Fort William 3–10 Inverurie Loco Works (11 September 2021)
Longest winning run	23 matches: Buckie Thistle
Longest unbeaten run	25 matches: Buckie Thistle
Longest winless run	31 matches: Fort William
Longest losing run	10 matches: Fort William & Turriff United
← 2020–21 2022–23 →

The 2021–22 Highland Football League (known as the Breedon Highland League for sponsorship reasons) was the 119th season of the Highland Football League, and the 8th season as part of the fifth tier of the Scottish football pyramid system. Brora Rangers were the reigning champions.

The title was decided during the final round of fixtures with Fraserburgh taking their first league title in twenty seasons thanks to a 5–0 victory over Forres Mechanics. They won the title by three points ahead of Buckie Thistle, who recorded a run of 23 consecutive victories during the campaign, a Highland League record.

Fraserburgh played the winners of the 2021–22 Lowland Football League (Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic) in the Pyramid play-off, losing 3–2 on aggregate.

Teams

Wick Academy class=notpageimage| Location of teams in 2021–22 Highland Football League

To Highland League

Relegated from League Two

Brechin City

Stadia and locations

All grounds are equipped with floodlights as required by league regulations.

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity	Seats
Brechin City	Brechin	Glebe Park	4,083	1,519
Brora Rangers	Brora	Dudgeon Park	4,000	200
Buckie Thistle	Buckie	Victoria Park	5,000	400
Clachnacuddin	Inverness	Grant Street Park	2,074	154
Deveronvale	Banff	Princess Royal Park	2,600	360
Formartine United	Pitmedden	North Lodge Park	2,500	300
Forres Mechanics	Forres	Mosset Park	2,700	502
Fort William	Fort William	Claggan Park	4,000	400
Fraserburgh	Fraserburgh	Bellslea Park	3,000	480
Huntly	Huntly	Christie Park	2,200	270
Inverurie Loco Works	Inverurie	Harlaw Park	2,500	250
Keith	Keith	Kynoch Park	4,000	370
Lossiemouth	Lossiemouth	Grant Park	2,050	250
Nairn County	Nairn	Station Park	2,250	250
Rothes	Rothes	Mackessack Park	2,700	184
Strathspey Thistle	Grantown-on-Spey	Seafield Park	1,600	150
Turriff United	Turriff	The Haughs	2,135	135
Wick Academy	Wick	Harmsworth Park	2,412	102

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Fraserburgh (C)	34	30	2	2	135	24	+111	92	Qualification for the Pyramid play-off
2	Buckie Thistle	34	29	2	3	127	21	+106	89
3	Brechin City	34	28	1	5	102	27	+75	85
4	Brora Rangers	34	25	2	7	117	36	+81	77
5	Rothes	34	21	6	7	75	31	+44	69
6	Formartine United	34	21	6	7	80	46	+34	69
7	Inverurie Loco Works	34	19	6	9	77	47	+30	63
8	Nairn County	34	11	6	17	61	70	−9	39
9	Wick Academy	34	10	9	15	55	85	−30	39
10	Huntly	34	10	7	17	53	67	−14	37
11	Clachnacuddin	34	10	7	17	51	80	−29	37
12	Forres Mechanics	34	8	10	16	45	80	−35	34
13	Keith	34	10	4	20	36	88	−52	34
14	Deveronvale	34	9	5	20	55	94	−39	32
15	Lossiemouth	34	8	6	20	32	83	−51	30
16	Strathspey Thistle	34	5	5	24	47	114	−67	20
17	Turriff United	34	4	6	24	41	96	−55	18
18	Fort William (R)	34	1	4	29	34	134	−100	7	Qualification for the Highland League play-off

Source:
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated

Results

Home \ Away	BRE	BRO	BUC	CLA	DEV	FOU	FOM	FOW	FRA	HUN	INV	KEI	LOS	NAI	ROT	STR	TUR	WIC
Brechin City		2–1	3–2	4–0	4–0	4–1	4–1	4–0	3–5	1–0	1–0	4–0	5–0	5–0	2–2	7–3	3–1	5–1
Brora Rangers	0–2		2–0	6–0	4–0	0–3	4–0	3–0	0–2	4–0	2–1	1–0	7–0	4–0	3–0	8–1	4–0	2–2
Buckie Thistle	1–0	5–0		4–1	5–0	4–0	3–1	9–1	2–2	3–0	3–0	10–0	5–0	4–1	2–1	5–0	2–0	1–1
Clachnacuddin	0–1	0–4	1–3		2–3	0–1	3–3	4–3	1–2	2–5	0–0	0–1	1–1	2–1	0–2	4–1	3–2	2–3
Deveronvale	1–4	0–3	0–4	0–1		0–4	1–1	10–0	0–6	3–3	3–2	2–0	6–0	4–5	0–3	3–0	0–6	3–4
Formartine United	1–0	4–4	1–5	4–2	4–1		4–1	3–0	0–2	5–1	1–3	4–0	5–2	4–1	1–1	4–0	5–0	3–2
Forres Mechanics	0–1	0–8	0–2	2–2	2–2	0–1		4–0	0–7	3–1	1–0	0–0	1–0	2–3	0–7	4–2	1–1	1–1
Fort William	1–5	0–8	1–4	1–2	1–2	1–1	2–3		0–4	1–1	3–10	1–2	0–2	0–4	0–1	4–2	1–1	1–3
Fraserburgh	1–0	6–2	1–3	7–0	5–0	3–0	5–0	12–0		4–0	3–0	7–0	6–1	1–0	1–2	7–0	1–1	5–0
Huntly	0–3	1–2	0–2	2–2	4–1	0–1	2–5	3–0	1–2		1–1	1–1	2–1	1–3	0–2	1–1	3–0	3–4
Inverurie Loco Works	2–1	2–1	1–5	5–0	3–0	3–1	2–2	2–0	0–2	2–1		5–3	5–2	3–2	1–1	5–1	2–1	4–0
Keith	0–6	1–7	0–6	0–3	2–4	1–2	1–2	3–1	0–5	0–0	0–0		1–0	0–2	0–5	5–1	3–0	2–0
Lossiemouth	0–3	0–2	0–5	0–2	2–1	2–2	0–0	3–1	1–3	1–4	2–2	2–0		1–1	0–1	1–1	2–1	2–1
Nairn County	1–3	0–3	1–4	1–1	0–2	0–1	2–2	3–3	2–3	1–2	0–1	1–3	0–1		3–2	4–0	5–3	2–2
Rothes	0–1	1–2	2–0	4–1	3–0	0–0	1–0	3–0	1–3	3–0	3–1	2–0	4–0	2–2		2–3	4–1	1–1
Strathspey Thistle	1–3	1–5	0–6	2–4	1–1	0–3	3–1	7–3	2–4	1–2	0–1	0–2	3–1	1–2	1–4		2–1	3–3
Turriff United	0–5	1–7	0–4	0–3	4–0	2–2	3–2	3–2	0–3	0–4	1–2	1–3	0–2	0–6	1–3	3–3		2–3
Wick Academy	1–3	1–4	0–4	2–2	2–2	1–4	2–0	3–2	2–5	2–4	0–6	3–2	2–0	0–2	1–2	1–0	1–1

Source:
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

^ Fort William played all of their league games during the 2021–22 season away from Claggan Park, due to an unplayable pitch.
Match played at Grant Park, Lossiemouth.

Highland League play-off

Play-offs for the final place in the 2022–23 Highland League were planned however no matches took place. As the winners of the 2021–22 Midlands Football League (Carnoustie Panmure) and the 2021–22 North Caledonian Football League (Invergordon) were ineligible for promotion, 2021–22 North Superleague winners Banks O' Dee were put forward to play-off with Fort William, who finished bottom of the Highland Football League. The day before the scheduled first leg, Fort William withdrew due to player eligibility rules. As a result, Banks O' Dee were promoted and Fort William were relegated.

First leg

23 April 202215:00

Banks O' Dee	w/o	Fort William

Spain Park, Aberdeen

Second leg

30 April 202215:00

Fort William	w/o	Banks O' Dee

Claggan Park, Fort William

References

Hendry, Alan (12 April 2022). "Wick Academy aiming to 'upset the odds' against record-breaking Buckie Thistle". North of Scotland Newspapers. Scottish Provincial Press. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
Law, Callum (25 July 2021). "Fort William to play all games away from home with Claggan Park unplayable". The Press and Journal. Aberdeen Journals. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
"Highland League Table". BBC. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
"Highland Football League, Scotland - League Table". Highland Football League. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
^ "Summary - Football League". Soccerway. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
Goodwin, Sophie (13 April 2022). "Highland League: Rothes v Inverurie Locos to be played at Lossiemouth's Grant Park". The Press and Journal. Aberdeen Journals. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
"Highland Football League, Scotland - Fixtures and Results". Highland Football League. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
Law, Callum (6 April 2022). "Fort William vow to keep fighting ahead of Rothes clash". The Press and Journal. Aberdeen Journals. Retrieved 9 April 2022. Finishing 18th would see them take on Junior side Banks o' Dee in the relegation play-off at the end of the campaign.
Law, Callum (22 April 2022). "Player eligibility led to Fort William's play-off withdrawal". The Press and Journal. Aberdeen Journals. Retrieved 22 April 2022.

External links

Official website

v t e Highland Football League
2024–25 teams	Banks o' Dee Brechin City Brora Rangers Buckie Thistle Clachnacuddin Deveronvale Formartine United Forres Mechanics Fraserburgh Huntly Inverurie Loco Works Keith Lossiemouth Nairn County Rothes Strathspey Thistle Turriff United Wick Academy
Former teams	Aberdeen 'A' Caledonian Cove Rangers Elgin Caledonian Elgin City Fort William Highland Light Infantry Inverness Celtic Inverness Citadel Inverness Thistle Inverness Union Peterhead Ross County
Associated competitions	Highland League Cup Aberdeenshire Cup Aberdeenshire League Aberdeenshire Shield Caledonia Trophy Inverness Cup North of Scotland Cup
Seasons	1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25

v t e 2021–22 in Scottish football
« 2020–21 2022–23 »
Domestic leagues	SPFL Premiership Championship League One League Two Highland Lowland Midlands North Caledonian North Superleague East of Scotland South of Scotland West of Scotland Women's Premier League SWPL 1 SWPL 2 Women's Championship North South
Domestic cups	Scottish Cup Final League Cup Group stage Final Challenge Cup Final South Region Challenge Cup Junior Cup Youth Cup Women's Cup Final Women's Premier League Cup
European competitions	Champions League Europa League Final Europa Conference League Youth League
Related to national team	Results Men's Women's 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA) 2022–23 UEFA Nations League 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification (UEFA)
Transfers	Summer 2021 Winter 2021–22
Club seasons
Premiership	Aberdeen Celtic Dundee Dundee United Heart of Midlothian Hibernian Livingston Motherwell Rangers Ross County St Johnstone St Mirren
Championship	Arbroath Ayr United Dunfermline Athletic Greenock Morton Hamilton Academical Inverness Caledonian Thistle Kilmarnock Partick Thistle Queen of the South Raith Rovers
League One	Airdrieonians Alloa Athletic Clyde Cove Rangers Dumbarton East Fife Falkirk Montrose Peterhead Queen's Park
League Two	Albion Rovers Annan Athletic Cowdenbeath Edinburgh City Elgin City Forfar Athletic Kelty Hearts Stenhousemuir Stirling Albion Stranraer

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