Skye Camanachd 6 Lewis Camanachd 1 | |
11 May 2015 The Skye Camanachd second team beat Lewis Camanachd 6-1 in their Marine Harvest North Division 2 meeting at Pairc nan Laoch, Portree on Saturday 9 May 2015. Skye Camanachd second team manager Davie Pringle was without captain David MacInnes, John MacKenzie and Stewart Grant who were all called up by the Skye first team. John Gillies and Neil John Campbell were unavailable. Ross Graham started in goal for his first appearance for some time. Angie MacDonald also made his first appearance of the season as did Iain MacPherson. There was a call up for Skye U14 player Connor Gilpin and John Angus MacInnes started at full centre with Ryan Morrison in attack. Lewis Camanachd manager Iain Sinclair was without Paddy Sinclair, Michael MacLeod and Stuart Campbell. However there was a first appearance this year for forward Duncan MacIntyre who had announced his retirement at the end of last season. It was a warm, sunny day in Portree and this 2.30pm throw up was broadcast LIVE on Cuillin FM’s “Camanachd Live” show. There was a minute’s silence ahead of throw up in memory of Skye Camanachd supporter Jimmy Nicolson who passed away earlier in the week. Skye opened shooting towards the Struan Road end on the ground and the first chance of the match fell to Skye’s Iain MacLellan when he collected a Daniel Morrison pass at the back post on the Skye right after 4 minutes but his strike went wide of goal. The opening 10 minutes were scrappy and the nearest to a goal was a Ryan Morrison shot into the side netting with Graham Cay carefully guarding his goal. With so many changes to their side, Skye were finding it difficult to get into a rhythm but they did make the break-through on 15 minutes thanks to a well-taken James Pringle strike which beat a diving Graham Cay to his right. James Pringle, who was now thriving in the buckshee forward role, got his and Skye’s second goal on 19 minutes when the youngster beat three defenders before playing a one-two with Ryan Morrison and flicking the ball low into the net for what was a silky solo goal. Lewis were forced to make seconds later as Seumas Charity came on in attack to replace Ally Lamont who was feeling unwell. Ryan Morrison went close to adding a third mid-way through the second half. James Pringle completed his hat-trick on the half-hour mark to make it 3-0. Iain MacLellan beat two defenders on a good run down the Skye right and his cut-back found Pringle who tucked the ball to keeper Cay’s left, low into the corner of the net. Lewis dropped Kenny Murray back into defence in an attempt to stem the Skye tide with Eoghan Stewart going up front. Graham Cay made a good stop from Iain MacLellan who took a knock in the process of shooting. Good work from James Pringle on the Skye left created a chance for Iain MacLellan and he turned and scored to make it 4-0 with 32 minutes played. With just 90 first half seconds remaining, a good run from substitute Seumas Charity ended with a shot which went narrowly wide. Kenny Murray’s switch to full back seemed to settle the Lewis rear-guard after the home team’s burst of four goals in 17 minutes and Skye took a comfortable 4-0 lead into the break. Skye made a couple of changes at the break. Angie MacDonald came on at full forward, taking over from Ryan Morrison whilst Connor Gilpin also came off the bench and he joined the forward line in place of Daniel Morrison. Lewis also made an enforced switch, introducing youngster Scott MacLeod to the field of play in place of James MacRae who had a hand injury. Connor Gilpin sent a shot wide early in the second half with Graham Cay watching carefully by his left post. Skye continued to surge forward and Iain MacLellan was denied by a superb save at close range from Graham Cay on 47 minutes and it remained 4-0. A combination of keeper Cay and defender Ronan Sinclair thwarted James Pringle moments later. A Duncan MacIntyre shot, following a Paul Duke shy, took a deflection off Andrew Banks to give Lewis their first corner of the game. Skye were unable to clear Donald Lamont’s corner and Scott MacLeod had a chance from a Eoghan Stewart pass before a delighted Donald Lamont bundled the ball over the line to make it 4-1 with 57 minutes gone. Graham Cay made a good save with his hand from James Pringle a couple of minutes later and the ball fell for Angie MacDonald on the right and he blasted the ball home to restore Skye’s four-goal cushion. James Pringle was causing the Lewis defence all sorts of problems and when Angie MacDonald laid off Pringle’s cross to Connor Gilpin, the youngster’s shot went just past the post. Skye introduced their final substitute as Calum Gibb came on for Iain MacPherson on 63 minutes. Ally Lamont was reintroduced for Lewis in place of Al Reed on 66 minutes. A Donald Lamont shot was deflected away for a corner which was defended well by the Skye back-line. Angie MacDonald sent a good strike just wide of the keeper’s left post with 16 minutes remaining. Al Reed came back on for Eoghan Stewart as the contest moved into the final 10 minutes. Skye rounded off the scoring on 84 minutes as Iain MacLellan finished off a quick attacking move which cut through the Lovat defence to make it 6-1. Ryan Morrison came back on for Skye a couple of minutes later, replacing scorer MacLellan. Morrison went to full forward with Angie MacDonald going to wing forward. Connor Gilpin had threatened the Lewis goal since his introduction at the break and he saw a late drive rise over the bar. Ryan Morrison also went close with a 35 yard drive shot from wide on the Skye right. Duncan MacIntyre shot wide from an Al Reed shy with the last chance of the game and Eoghan Stewart came back on for the visitors for the final seconds as Donald Lamont limped off. But with no further scoring, Skye took the points against a spirited Lewis side which showed great progress since their last visit to Portree. Hat-trick hero James Pringle was the pick of the Skye players with DJ Gilpin not far behind. Keeper Graham Cay, Daniel Gallagher, Kenny Murray and Scott Murray all did well for Lewis. Skye Camanachd from: Ross Graham: David Grant, Kyle Pirie, Andrew Banks, DJ Gilpin: Ross Nicolson, John Angus MacInnes (captain), Ian MacPherson: James Pringle, Iain MacLellan, Daniel Morrison, Ryan Morrison: subs Calum Gibb, Angie MacDonald, Connor Gilpin Lewis Camanachd from: Graham Cay: Ronan Sinclair, Eoghan Stewart, Daniel Gallagher, James MacRae: Al Reed, Scott Murray, Paul Duke: Duncan MacIntyre, Donald Lamont, Ally Lamont, Kenny Murray: subs Scott MacLeod, Seumas Charity Match Referee – John Matheson The match balls were sponsored by Nor-Dan |