Holcombe keeper George Pinner admitted a sense of relief overcame him after helping his side achieve “the hardest thing in sport” and win promotion to the national Premier Division on Sunday.

The England and Great Britain stopper admitted the pressure on Holcombe to reach the top flight had been immense after the amount of investment into players like Pinner, and international team-mates Barry Middleton and Iain Lewers.

Holcombe finished the promotion play-offs unbeaten and join Kent rivals Canterbury in next season’s Premier Division after an emphatic 5-1 win over Team Bath Buccaneers on Sunday.

Pinner admitted his emotions were equal between relief and absolute delight.

He said: “The hardest thing to do in sport is to live up to your favourites tag and obviously there’s been a lot of pressure on us.

“We have got a very strong squad this year. We have missed out as a club on promotion the past few years and really should be in the Premier Division.

“We had a really tight game against Bowdon (in the opening round of the play-offs), a hard-fought draw against Canterbury and we knew all we had to do today was not lose, and that’s a really difficult position to be in.

“But we’ve gone out and performed well and are absolutely delighted to be in the Premier League and relieved to have done the job.”

Playing at Lee Valley, in the shadow of the Queen Elizabeth OIympic Park, James Stedman and David Appleton put the Rochester side 2-0 ahead in the opening half and Stephane Vehrle-Smith made it three with a thumping finish after the break.

Bath – who needed a win to ensure promotion at the expense of Holcs – did pull one back from close range but Gareth Andrew produced a superb solo run and thunderous finish to make it 4-1 before teeing up Stedman to add a fifth.

Andrew had given Holcs hope of securing top-flight status the previous day when he put his side ahead against Canterbury, only for their Kent rivals to secure a 1-1 draw and ensure the drama went down to the final day.