Lovat 3 Skye Camanachd 0. | |
02 June 2010 Skye Camanachd second team manager Davie MacVicar made 5 changes to his squad for the Strathdearn Cup second round tie against Lovat at Balgate on Saturday 29 May 2010. Skipper David Grant and wing centre Scott Martin were both out injured, while Darryl MacIntosh was cup tied having played for Lewis Camanachd earlier in the competition. Jordan Murchison and Daniel Morrison were both unavailable. Willie MacRae, Angie MacDonald and Michael Nicolson returned to the squad - Nicolson for his first ever game as an outfield player. Lovat were missing the cup tied Owen Ferguson. Despite the changes, Skye went on the offensive from the throw up and Ally MacDonald was inches away from scoring an opening goal in the first minute. There was a let off for Skye in 10 minutes when Jimmy MacKenzie crashed a thunderous drive off the outside corner of the post from a tight angle. The ball was eventually cleared to safety by Andrew Banks. Less than ten minutes later Skye came even closer to opening the scoring when Willie MacRae teed up Ian Morrison, and from 25 yards the youngster sent in a rasping shot which rebounded off the inside corner of the post to safety. At the other end the Skye defence were coping well and restricting the Lovat forwards openings in front of goal, with Shaun Hedley in particular snuffing out the threat of Jamie Matheson. Skye continued to pose a threat down the right hand side and when Neil MacVicar played in Ally MacDonald, the youngster expertly turned his man to fire goalwards only to see Chris MacCallum in the Lovat goal turn the ball behind at the expense of a corner. The deadlock was eventually broken on 37 minutes. The Skye defence failed to challenge for the ball following a Lewis Tawse hit, and as the onrushing Rory Cruden and full back Andrew Banks duelled for the possession, it was the Skye full back who turned the ball past a helpless Ross Graham to put Lovat 1 0 ahead. This set back only served to renew the Skye effort and the visitors came close to equalising when Davie MacVicar played a long ball over the defence to Angie MacDonald who expertly flicked the ball over keeper MacCallum only for Craig Mainland to clear from in front of his own goal line. With Skye creating the best of the openings in the first half further opportunities fell their way with Ian Morrison just failing to get a touch to a Stewart Grant corner and on the stroke of half time a scorching drive from Morrison just cleared the junction of the bar and post. Lovat introduced Tom Smith at wing centre against Neil MacVicar at the start of the second half. Smith was restricted to half a game as he would feature in the first team line up against Newtonmore later in the afternoon. Skye continued to have the best of the game in the opening minutes of the second half without creating any clear cut chances. Lovat’s buckshee back Alan MacPherson was proving a real obstacle to the Skye forwards and his long clearances were providing his forwards with more of the ball. Skye’s hopes of salvaging something from the game were dealt a killer blow when Lovat scored a quick fire double in 65 and 67 minutes. The first goal came when Jimmy MacKenzie dropped deep to escape the attentions of Andrew Banks and his 20 yard grounder seemed to get lost under keeper Ross Graham’s feet before it entered the net. With Skye still reeling from this blow, further Lovat pressure saw Jamie Matheson break free from marker Shaun Hedley for the only time in the game to steer a low shot into the left hand corner of the Skye net. Skye introduced Ally MacLeod for Willie MacRae for the closing 20 minutes and the youngster looked lively in attack. Michael Nicolson came on at wing forward for player manager MacVicar with Ally MacLeod then dropping to wing centre and Neil MacVicar taking over at full centre from MacVicar senior. As Lovat continued to press in the last quarter, Ross Graham pulled of a superb save low to his right with his stick from a Matheson shot. Jamie Matheson had the ball in the net again soon after but this was correctly ruled out for a kick by the referee and his brother Greig Matheson who was goal judge. To their credit Skye kept pressing until the last minute, but openings for Nicolson and Morrison failed to produce a goal. Next up for Skye is a vital Marine Harvest North Division 2 match against Beauly at Braeview Park.
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