West Side Retain U14 Lachlan McQuien Memorial Shield. | |
04 January 2011 West Side U14 won the Lachlan McQuien Memorial Shield when the beat East Side U14 7-5 in their clash on Friday 31 December 2010. The early exchanges were even but East Side took an early advantage when Ruaraidh Muncaster set up a fantastic opening goal for Fraser Ballantyne. The East side made it 2-0 when Ruaraidh Mucaster got on the end of a rebound to slam the ball into the back of the net. Fraser Ballantyne netted his second shortly after to make it 3-0. There was a terrific battle in midfield between full centres Owen Vesey and Calum Ferguson, with Douglas Mucaster giving a solid performance at full back for the East where he had his hands full marking a dangerous Duncan Biddulph. Despite this, the West Side slowly began to find their feet and apply pressure, forcing two good saves from East keeper Anndra McIsaac before Seumas Boyle finally slipped the ball past him for their opening goal. Despite ending the first half 3-1 down, the West side emerged the stronger team in the second half, with Seumas Boyle swiftly completing a hat-trick to bring the score level at 3-3. Calum Ferguson was next to get his name on the score sheet putting the West side ahead for the first time in the game. Seumas Boyle scored his fourth to complete a remarkable come-back and put the West Side 5-3 ahead. East Side responded by taking Ruaraidh Muncaster back into their midfield and pushing Owen Vesey into attack. The switch paid off when Fraser Ballantyne scored to complete his hat-trick and make it 5-4. East Side struggled to find the net with West Side keeper Robbie Anderson finding his form and Mata McIsaac giving a fantastic performance in defence. West Side regained their two goal lead when Seumas Boyle blasting the ball into the net from close range to net his fifth goal and put West Side 6-4 ahead. A final push from Fraser Ballantyne brought the score close again when he produced a terrific top corner finish past Anderson to make it 6-5. However Calum Ferguson destroyed any chance of a come-back with the final goal of the game which made the final score 7-5 for the West. A delighted Calum Ferguson accepted the Lachlan McQuien Memorial Shield, following in the footsteps of brother Alasdair who captained the victorious West Side in 2008. With a pool of enthusiastic U14 players feeding into a developing senior team, the future of shinty in Uist is beginning to look very promising. |