2020–21 Highland Football League

Breedon Highland League
Season2020–21
Dates28 November 2020 – 30 March 2021
ChampionsBrora Rangers
Matches played16
Goals scored76 (4.75 per match)
Biggest home winFraserburgh 13–1 Turriff United
(2 January 2021)
Biggest away winFort William 0–10 Brora Rangers
(19 December 2020)
Highest scoringFraserburgh 13–1 Turriff United
(2 January 2021)
Longest winning run3 matches:
Brora Rangers & Fraserburgh
Longest unbeaten run3 matches:
Brora Rangers & Fraserburgh
Longest winless run3 matches:
Deveronvale & Huntly
Longest losing run2 matches:
3 teams

The 2020–21 Highland Football League (known as the Breedon Highland League for sponsorship reasons) was the 118th season of the Highland Football League, and the 7th season as the fifth tier of the Scottish football pyramid system.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the league announced in August 2020 that the season would start in October with a shortened a 16-game schedule (teams playing each other once).[1] In late September, the start date was deferred until at least 28 November because the member clubs said they could not play fixtures without fans.[2] The season started on 28 November, but Forres Mechanics withdrew just beforehand (reducing the schedule to 15 games).[3]

On 11 January 2021 the league was suspended by the Scottish Football Association due to the escalating pandemic situation.[4]

Despite having only completed three fixtures, Brora Rangers were declared champions for the second successive season using a points per game formula. The decision was announced by the Highland League on 30 March 2021.[5] Two teams (Clachnacuddin and Fort William) had only played one game and Strathspey Thistle had not played at all.

Brora Rangers faced the winners of the 2020–21 Lowland Football League (Kelty Hearts) in the Pyramid play-off, losing 6–1 on aggregate.

Teams

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Location of teams in 2020–21 Highland Football League

Stadia and locations

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

Team Location Stadium Capacity Seats
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
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

Withdrawn

Team Location Stadium Capacity Seats
Forres Mechanics Forres Mosset Park 2,700 502

League table

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts PPG Promotion or qualification
1 Brora Rangers (C) 3 3 0 0 20 1 +19 9 3.00 Qualification for the Pyramid play-off
2 Fraserburgh 3 3 0 0 16 1 +15 9 3.00
3 Buckie Thistle 2 2 0 0 8 3 +5 6 3.00
4 Formartine United 2 2 0 0 7 2 +5 6 3.00
5 Inverurie Loco Works 2 2 0 0 6 2 +4 6 3.00
6 Keith 2 1 0 1 2 3 −1 3 1.50
7 Rothes 2 1 0 1 2 5 −3 3 1.50
8 Huntly 3 0 2 1 3 4 −1 2 0.67
9 Lossiemouth 2 0 1 1 2 4 −2 1 0.50
10 Deveronvale 3 0 1 2 2 8 −6 1 0.33
11 Strathspey Thistle 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 —
12 Clachnacuddin 1 0 0 1 2 4 −2 0 0.00
13 Nairn County 2 0 0 2 1 3 −2 0 0.00
14 Wick Academy 2 0 0 2 3 8 −5 0 0.00
15 Fort William 1 0 0 1 0 10 −10 0 0.00
16 Turriff United 2 0 0 2 2 18 −16 0 0.00
Source: Highland Football League BBC Sport Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points per game; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored
(C) Champions

Results

Home \ Away BRO BUC CLA DEV FOU FOW FRA HUN INV KEI LOS NAI ROT STR TUR WIC
Brora Rangers 5–1
Buckie Thistle
Clachnacuddin 2–4
Deveronvale 0–5 1–2
Formartine United 2–1
Fort William 0–10[a]
Fraserburgh 13–1
Huntly 1–1
Inverurie Loco Works 2–0
Keith
Lossiemouth 0–2 2–2
Nairn County 0–1
Rothes 1–5 1–0
Strathspey Thistle
Turriff United 1–5
Wick Academy 2–3
Updated to match(es) played on 2 January 2021. Source: Highland Football League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Notes

  1. ^ Match played at Dudgeon Park, Brora.[6]

References

  1. ^ "Highland League cuts number of fixtures from 32 to 16". BBC Sport. 29 August 2020. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  2. ^ "Highland League start delayed by at least six weeks". BBC Sport. 28 September 2020. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  3. ^ Pollock, Donald (28 November 2020). "Covid in Scotland: Forres Mechanics take break from league". BBC News. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  4. ^ "Scottish FA Board confirms three-week suspension of professional football beneath SPFL Championship | Scottish FA". www.scottishfa.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
  5. ^ "Brora & Kelty Hearts declared champions". BBC Sport.
  6. ^ Durent, Jamie (19 December 2020). "Highland League: Ashley Hollyer aware of Fort William's Brora challenge". The Press and Journal. Aberdeen Journals. Retrieved 19 December 2020. The game was also originally due to be played at Claggan Park, however due to ongoing maintenance work it has been switched to Brora.