Skye Camanachd 6 Kinlochshiel 1. | |
28 June 2009 Skye Camanachd went 6 points clear at the top of Marine Harvest North Division 1 with a 6-1 derby win over Kinlochshiel at Pairc nan Laoch, Portree on Saturday 27 June 2009. Anoghas MacDonald was forced to make a couple of changes to his side with work commitments ruling out both Somhairle MacDonald and Iain Nicolson. However AB Connor returned after injury and Allan MacLeod was also back after missing last weekend’s clash of the camans win. Ally MacLennan and Norman MacLeod started from the bench. Allan MacKinnon was given a place in the senior starting line up for the first time this season and this proved to be an inspired decision. After the early exchanges settled down, Skye drew first blood when referee Deek Cameron awarded them a penalty after 22 minutes when a Shiel defender kicked the ball in the D. Skye as a club had missed their last 14 consecutive penalties so it was an anxious home support who watched Dougie Rankin place the ball on the spot. However the full forward made no mistake as he fired the ball low into the net. Skye had chances to extend their lead but never took them and they were punished 5 minutes before the break when Shiel’s Gordy MacDonald levelled. Just 3 minutes into the second half, the home side were treated to an explosion of goals – 4 in a 10 minute spell which won the match. Allan MacKinnon started things off when his strike gave Skye the lead once again. Kenny Campbell made it 3-1 a couple of minutes later. Shiel moved the influential Finlay MacRae from defence into the forward line in an attempt to gat back into the match. However the move backfired as the Skye forwards exploited his absence in the Shiel rear-guard with Dougie Rankin scoring his second and Skye’s fourth when he sent a back-hand rocket shot into the roof of the net. Alan Palmer made it 5-1 in 58 minutes and captain Kenny Campbell rounded off the win with his second goal 3 minutes from the end to make the final score 6-1. And there could have been more goals with both keepers making some outstanding saves. Shiel may have had an eye on the fourth-coming Balliemore Cup Final and their manager Keith Loades suggested this in his after-match interview on Cuillin fm. It’s a problem Skye can relate to as they suffered a similar blip in form ahead of the 2008 final. However Aonghas MacDonald will take nothing but positives from the game as there were simply no below par performances in a Skye shirt with National U21 Player of the Year Steven Morrison outstanding in defence as was AB Connor. Gilleasbuig MacDonald, Jamie MacDonald and Kerr Gibb dominated the centre line whilst Allan MacKinnon energised the forward line. Dougie Rankin and Alan Palmer put in their best performances of the season up front and captain Kenny Campbell led by example. Kilmallie, Strathglass and Lovat can all go a point ahead of Skye in Marine Harvest North Division 1 should they win all their games in hand. Kinlochshiel themselves can equal Skye’s points tally should they win their outstanding matches as can second placed Beauly. The difficulty for these sides is that they will all likely take points off each other. Skye Camanachd from; Jamie Gannon, Steven Morrison, AB Connor, Allan MacLeod, John Moir, Jamie MacDonald, Gilleasbuig MacDonald, Kerr Gibb, Kenny Campbell, Alan Palmer, (Norman MacLeod), Allan MacKinnon, Dougie Rankin, subs Ally MacLennan, Donnie Campbell (not used) Match referee – Deek Cameron The match balls were sponsored by Nor-Dan
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