Memory Lane – Season 1986 / 87 – Part 21. | |
09 December 2009 Before this match, Skye Camanachd were presented with a set of new strips by Iain and Neil MacFarlane, Directors of club sponsors PBCS. It had been a massive 9 weeks since Skye Camanachd’s last league outing and there was always the chance that a lack of fitness and match practice would go against Calum Murchison’s side when fellow title challengers Fort William visited the King George V Park, Portree. In the end, that is exactly what happened as the Fort exploited Skye’s lack of match practice from the start and raced into an early 2-0 lead. Ronnie MacLeod took advantage of a sluggish Skye defence when he scored the opener almost straight from the throw up and the same player punished slack Skye play to make it 2-0 just moments later. Skye could see their title chances slipping away before their very eyes but they battled back with both Calum Murchison and Peter Gordon forcing good saves from Skye pulled a goal back on 13 minutes when Duncan MacDougall collected a Shorty Murchison corner and fired a shot through a ruck of players into the net to make it 2-1 to the visitors. However the final 20 minutes of the first half belonged to Skye. The Islanders forced several corners in quick succession. Graeme MacMillan used his body to block a Caley MacLean shot from a corner and a Fort defender managed to deflect Willie MacKinnon’s effort from the rebound round the post for another corner. Willie MacKinnon shot on target from the resultant corner but In one final attempt to level the match before the break, Duncan MacDougall set up Willie MacRae but MacRae shot wide so Skye tried everything to get back in the game but to no avail. Player / manager Calum Murchison then made a couple of changes in an attempt to inject more impetus into the side. Caley MacLean and Willie MacKinnon were withdrawn whilst Peter Murchison and Willie Cowie came on in their place. However before Murchison could put his new plan into effect, Skye took advantage of this let-off and a minute later, Shorty Murchison raced for the by-line and pulled the ball back for Calum Murchison to thunder a superbly hit shot into the net. Trailing by just a goal, Skye threw everything at the Skye pressed for the remaining 15 minutes but Skye’s next league outing was a trip to Beauly. |