Fort William 0 Skye Camanachd 5 | |
11 May 2016 The Skye Camanachd second team picked up their first Marine Harvest North Division 1 points of the season when they beat the Fort William second team 5-0 at An Aird on Saturday 7 May 2016. The Fort William seconds, who won the division last season, went into this noon throw up on the back of a defeat to league leaders Strathglass the previous Saturday. They were without the suspended Jay MacLeod and defender Cameron Grant who will be missing for the next four months as he spends some time abroad. The Fort fielded a young squad, with 8 youth players in their starting line-up and whilst they went into the match in fifth place in the table, they had won both their home league matches this season. It was another away-day for Skye boss Davie Pringle, with the team having only one home league match so far this season. He made no fewer than eight changes to the squad which narrowly lost to the Beauly second team at Pairc nan Laoch, Portree a couple of weeks earlier. Iain MacLeod, Ally “Cleodi” MacLeod, James Pringle and Iain MacLellan all returned after featuring for the first team a fortnight earlier whilst Chris Rose and Aonghas MacDonald were also added. There were also places for Ally “Spod” MacLeod, back after injury, and his brother Ruaraidh MacLeod who was also fit again. Will Cowie returned to the Skye first team squad whilst Kenny MacLeod, Ian MacPherson, Allan MacLeod, Scott Martin, Ryan Morrison and youngsters Jack Henderson and Stewart Taylor all missed out. Thomas Wilson remained out with a hand injury but his comeback is imminent. Skye were forced into an early change on 18 minutes when wing centre Calum Gibb had to leave the field with a back problem having sustained a Go-Kart injury during the midweek. Ruaraidh MacLeod came on at wing forward with Connor Gilpin switching to wing centre. Despite the early start, Skye had begun the match strongly though and they took the lead through John Angus MacInnes on 23 minutes. DJ Gilpin won possession on the wing and he sent the ball long to Iain MacLellan who played a short pass to John Angus MacInnes and he found a yard of space to shoot low into the corner of the net from 15 yards out. John Angus MacInnes got his second to make it 2-0 on 33 minutes and he was denied a first half hat-trick when young Fort keeper Stuart Disher pulled off a spectacular save, keeping MacInnes’ 25 yard drive out of the top right corner of the net as the half drew to a close. Skye had enjoyed the majority of the first half pressure with their centre line, and James Pringle at buckshee forward, taking a grip of the game. However they did have some defending to do and keeper Iain MacLeod made three comfortable saves with his feet from long-range shots. Fort William made changes at the break with Scott Knox switching to buckshee back in place of Dean Williamson in an attempt to snuff out the threat posed by James Pringle. However it was Pringle who made it 3-0 on 47 minutes when he dribbled the ball up the right wing before getting two yards away from his marker and he sent a low 20 yard shot past keeper Stuart Disher into net. Pringle went on another mazy run a couple of minutes later; this time from the centre-line down the middle of the pitch, passing three Fort William players. Pringle was tackled and the ball broke to Iain MacLellan on the edge of the D and he sent a low, hard shot into the net to make it 4-0. Fort William now put Scott Know to wing back with Dean Williamson returning to buckshee back to mark James Pringle. Skye keeper Iain MacLeod made a fantastic save above head-height from a shot on the right to protect Skye’s clean sheet. It was a super stop and showed why MacLeod earned Scotland U21 honours at the end of last year. Skye made changes with Ross Nicolson coming on at wing centre in place of Iain MacLellan. A little later, Aonghas MacDonald went on at full forward for two-goal John Angus MacInnes. Skye substitute Ross Nicolson rounded off the scoring 5 minutes from time. Nicolson found himself on the left corner of the pitch with three Fort players and James Pringle for company. He played a tight one-two with Pringle before dribbling the ball parallel with the by-line and, from 10 yards out, he struck an unstoppable shot into top right corner of the net for what was a great goal. Despite the defeat, Fort William showed that they have some good, young players in their squad with wing centre Lachie Shaw’s performance suggesting that he is one to watch for the future. The Skye squad did well and there was satisfaction in the camp with the clean sheet. There were good performances at the back from keeper Iain MacLeod and defender DJ Gilpin. Chris Rose bossed the midfield and Connor Gilpin impressed again although he did tire towards the end of the game. James Pringle turned in another good performance in attack whilst John Angus MacInnes and Iain MacLellan always looked dangerous and the trio gave the Fort defence a difficult afternoon. Fort William from: Stuart Disher; Alexander Cameron, Alistair MacRae, Lachie Shaw, Scott Knox; Seamus Gall, Scott Henderson, Neil Clark; Ryan Boyle, Dean Williamson, Grant Disher, Lewis Clark; subs Donald Walker, Dylan Fraser, Duncan Stevenson, Padraig McNeil Skye Camanachd from: Iain MacLeod; David Grant (captain), Andrew Banks, DJ Gilpin, Ally “Spod” MacLeod; Calum Gibb, Chris Rose, Ally “Cleodi” MacLeod; James Pringle, Iain MacLellan, Connor Gilpin, John Angus MacInnes; Ross Nicolson, Ruaraidh MacLeod, Aonghas MacDonald Match Referee – Martin MacLean Scorers Fort William None Skye Camanachd John MacInnes (23, 33) James Pringle (47) Ross Nicolson (85) |