Skye Camanachd U17s Reach Strathdearn Sixes Semi Finals | |
11 June 2008 Skye Camanachd U17s had two late call offs prior to travelling to the Bught Park, Inverness to defend their Strathdearn Sixes title. Goalkeeper Ian Morrison and utility player Robert Urquhart had to call off due to work committments. Scott MacLeod took Morrison's place between the sticks with Paul MacKinnon replacing Urquhart. Skye were drawn in a section with Newtonmore, Lochaber, Inverness and Lovat. A feature of the opening two games against Newtonmore and Lochaber was solid defending from Neil John Campbell and Martin Bruce and some great goalkeeping from Scott MacLeod, particularly against Lochaber. Skye then suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Inverness and their chances of qualification for the semi finals looked bleak at this stage. With Lochaber already qualified for the semi final, this left a potential winners take all clash between Skye and Lovat. Skye lost Neil John Campbell to injury and he was replaced by Stewart Grant. Paul MacKinnon was also introduced at this stage and his direct style was always effective. Lovat took the lead through Greg Matheson but a Neil MacVicar strike levelled the game. With only seconds remaining - and a draw favouring Lovat for qualification - MacVicar hit a great 25 yard drive which flew into the top corner of the net to secure a Skye victory. Skye still required Lochaber to defeat Inverness in the final group game to confirm their semi final place and a 1-0 win for the red and white hoops did exactly that. Captain Shockie MacLennan deserves a special mention for his skillfull play and for driving his team on throughout the tournament. The other section was comfortably won by Strathglass and it took a penatly shoot-out for Beauly to secure second place at the expense of Kinlochshiel. Lochcarron and Caberfeidh were the other teams in that section. Skye put up a brave fight in their semi final against Strathglass and despite losing an early goal to Marc McLachlan, they responded with a Danny Morrison equaliser. However McLachlan scored twice to secure a final place for Strathglass. Lochaber defeated Beauly in the other semi final. Strathglass won the final 1-0 and their goalscorer was - inevitably - Marc McLachlan. However Lochaber can consider themselves unlucky as they had the better chances in the game. The player of the tournament trophy deservedly went to Marc McLachlan who incredibily scored all 14 Strathglass goals in the competition. A big plus for Skye is that Shockie MacLennan is the only player from the squad who is ineligible for next year's competition with Ian Morrison an obvious replacement. The Skye team was: Scott MacLeod, Neil John Campbell, Martin Bruce, Shockie MacLennan (capt), Neil MacVicar, Danny Morrison subs - Stewart Grant and Paul MacKinnon
|