Thomas Ferguson Memorial Cup - Glasgow Mid Argyll 5 Skye Camanachd 7. | |
20 February 2010 Skye Camanachd won the 2009 Thomas Ferguson Memorial Cup with a 7-5 win over Glasgow Mid Argyll on Saturday 20 February 2010.
This fixture was carried forward from last season when Skye Camanachd were due to play Glenurquhart for the famous trophy. However the original match was postponed as the unfavourable weather left the pitch in Portree unplayable. The clubs were unable to find an alternative date to play.
It was a depleted Skye Camanachd squad which travelled south with Allan MacLeod and Allan MacKinnon missing because of work commitments and Danny Morrison out with flu. David Grant also didn’t travel as he hurt his back in Alba’s victory in last weekend’s shinty / hurling international. Brothers Somhairle and Gilleasbuig MacDonald were absentees as was team manager Aonghas MacDonald. Alba Head Coach Eoghan Stewart took charge of the Skye Camanachd side.
The match was switched from a frozen Yoker to the all weather pitch at Cumbernauld. However the size of the playing surface meant the teams decided to play 10 a side.
Despite a sluggish start, an early own goal gave Skye the lead and although Mid Argyll levelled shortly after when their forwards were allowed too much space in the danger area.
Some positional changes from Eoghan Stewart revitalised Skye as Iain Nicolson moved from defence into attack, full centre Jamie Nicolson dropped into defence and forward Kenny Campbell tool up the full centre berth.
An Iain Nicolson strike put Skye 2-1 up although there was the hint of a kick in the lead up to the goal.
A sparkling performance from Ally MacLennan saw him go on to complete a hat-trick in the final 20 minutes of the first half – his second strike was a screamer - to give the Islanders a 5-1 interval lead.
Mid Argyll fought back in the second half and a couple of goals reduced Skye’s lead to 5-3.
Skye lost full back Steven Morrison with a pulled hamstring and AB Connor came on in his place. Skye keeper Jamie Gannon also saved a penalty to preserve Skye’s 2 goal margin.
Skye went 6-3 up thanks to Ally MacLennan’s fourth goal of the game before the Glasgow side scored to reduce the visitors’ lead to a single goal.
A late Iain Nicolson strike made it 7-5 in and the same player fired a penalty wide of the target before the final whistle.
This turned out to be a good pre-season workout for both sides on a day where the frosty weather meant that little shinty was played.
Skye Camanachd from; Jamie Gannon, Steven Morrison (captain), (AB Connor), Ian Nicolson, (Eoghan Stewart), John Moir, Shockie MacLennan, Jamie MacDonald, Kerr Gibb, Alan Palmer, Ally MacLennan, Kenny Campbell |