Skye Camanachd And Lochcarron Recreate 1999 Balliemore Cup Final. | |
23 November 2009 Skye Camanachd travel to Battery Park on The teams met at An Aird, Lochcarron held a slight advantage going into the final as they earned a 2-2 draw when they played Skye on league duty at Pairc nan Laoch, Portree and they followed this up with a 2-0 victory when the return league match was played at Battery Park, Lochcarron. Skye suffered a major blow on the morning of the final when Willie Cowie was ruled out with flu. The Skye U14 side also lost in the Ken MacMaster Cup Final in the morning when they went down 1-0 to Oban Camanachd in a match also played at An Aird. Things got even worse when North Player of the Year Iain MacKenzie gave Lochcarron an early lead and Skye had keeper John “Podge” MacLeod to thank for keeping them in the game with saves from John MacLennan and Fraser MacKenzie. Skye rallied though and midway through the first half, Lochcarron keeper Chris MacKenzie made a great save from Stuart MacGregor. This was the first of many fine stops made by the Lochcarron keeper during the afternoon. John MacLean was in fine form for Skye and he sent in a screaming shot which came back off the crossbar with MacKenzie again saving well from Somhairle MacDonald’s rebound attempt. MacKenzie made further saves from MacLean and MacDonald and before denying Skye with a stop from a Peter Gordon piledriver. With just a minute remaining in the regulation 90 minutes, a left-field cross found Skye’s Stuart MacGregor dashing in on goal and he beat MacKenzie to take the match into extra time. Both sides had chances to win the cup during the extra time period but keepers John MacLeod and Chris MacKenzie dealt with everything which came their way. And so the Final was to be decided on a penalty shoot-out. Davie MacKenzie put Lochcarron 1-0 up and Willie MacKinnon saw his effort saved by MacKenzie. However MacLeod saved Angus MacKay’s effort whilst Ewen MacSween netted for Skye to level the contest. MacLeod saved again, this time from Kenny Ross and Peter Gordon missed for Skye so the sides remained level. Crucially, John MacLennan scored for Lochcarron whilst John MacLean missed for Skye which left the contest 2-1 in Lochcarron’s favour. Darren Coyle could have clinched the trophy for Lochcarron but he missed. Stuart MacGregor took the chance to take the penalty shoot out into sudden death as he held his nerve to square things at 2-2. The sudden death reverted to the original order of takers and Davie MacKenzie scored his second penalty to give Lochcarron the advantage once again. Chris MacKenzie then wrote his name in the Lochcarron history books when he saved from Willie MacKinnon to take the trophy to Battery Park. Lochcarron captain Kenny Ross was presented with the trophy whilst both sides, later in the season, went on to clinch league positions which would secure them entry to the newly formed National Division 1. |