Skye Camanachd 3 Glenurquhart 1 | |
06 September 2011 Skye Camanachd beat Glenurquhart 3-1 in their Marine Harvest North Division 2 meeting at Pairc nan Laoch, Portree on Saturday 3 September 2011. Skye Camanachd second team manager Davie MacVicar made three changes to the side which beat Kingussie the previous weekend. Andrew Banks, Martin Bruce and Paul MacKinnon were unavailable so Neil John Campbell and Allan MacKinnon came into the side with Danny Morrison starting on the bench. Glenurquhart have had an indifferent season and their absentees included Daniel MacKintosh, Ewan Menzies and keeper Garry MacKintosh who was suspended. However their side included a mix of youth and experience with five of their line-up having played Premier Division shinty this season. Despite playing into the breeze in the first half, Glenurquhart had the better of the opening quarter hour as they began to dominate in midfield. It was no surprise when the Glen opened the scoring on 12 minutes when Scotland U17 player Fraser Heath ran unchallenged from midfield and played a neat one two with Billy Urquhart before dispatching a lofted drive into the roof of the Skye net past the despairing hand of keeper John MacLeod. Skye were level 9 minutes later when Will Cowie played a short pass into Ally MacDonald who flicked the ball past David Emery in the Glen goal to draw the teams level. Danny Morrison came on in place of David Grant with quarter of an hour remaining of the first half. Ally MacDonald took over at full forward with Danny Morrison replacing MacDonald at buckshee forward and Skye began to see more of the ball in the forward line. Jordan Murchison teed up winger Ian Morrison who fired narrowly past. Glenurquhart lost defender Gary Smith after he picked up a leg knock. Then after a period of pressure Skye went ahead on 37 minutes when Will Cowie played the ball into Jordan Murchison who took on the entire Glen defence before dispatching a crisp, low drive into the Glen net. As Skye finished the half strongly, Cowie fired just past after good play by Ally MacDonald and then MacDonald saw his shot saved after being set up by Danny Morrison. Skye opened the second half brightly and Jordan Murchison was only inches away from his second goal after 51 minutes when he was played in by Allan MacKinnon. Glenurquhart then began to take a grip of the midfield and they fashioned a number of chances with first Lewis MacLennan firing over from distance and then Ian MacLeod forcing a save from John MacLeod in the Skye goal after a quick free hit from Lewis MacLennan. The introduction of Magnus Burd to the Skye forward line for the closing quarter brought an almost immediate impact when he won possession on 77 minutes before playing the ball wide to Danny Morrison who sent a shoulder high drive past David Emery in the Glen goal from 15 yards. Glenurquhart still posed a threat however and Lewis MacLennan will still be wondering how he missed from inside the D after a quick Ian MacLeod free hit. The game finished with Skye on the attack when Danny Morrison fired just wide after collecting the ball from an Ally MacLeod corner on the right. In what was a solid display against strong opposition, Skye’s best performers were in defence where Ian Nicolson dominated for in the buckshee back position. Glenurquhart were well served by Lewis MacLennan. Skye still require one more point to be arithmetically free of the threat of relegation but it would take a bizarre string of results in the remaining league games to affect Skye’s North Division 2 status. Skye Camanachd from; John MacLeod (captain), Neil MacVicar, Iain Grant, Neil John Campbell, Iain Nicolson, Alan MacKinnon, Darryl Macintosh, Iain Morrison, Ally MacDonald, Will Cowie, Jordan Murchison, David Grant subs Danny Morrison, Ally MacLeod, Magnus Burd, Iain MacLellan Glenurquhart from; David Emery, Gary Smith, Calum Smith, Liam Girvan, Lewis MacLennan, Ross MacAulay, Ian MacLeod, James Hurwood, Fraser Heath, Euan Lloyd, Billy Urquhart, Calum Fraser subs Rory MacLean, Cameron MacLennan, Steven Henderson Match Referee – Graeme MacMillan The match balls were sponsored by Nor-Dan |