Memory Lane – Season 1989 / 90 – Part 35 | |
27 December 2010 MacTavish Cup Second Round Glenurquhart 0 Skye Camanachd 5 Skye Camanachd won through to the MacTavish Cup semi finals but they were made to battle all the way by a very determined Glenurquhart side. The Glen, who ply their trade in North Division 2, beat Lochaber in a first round reply for the right to host the Islanders. Skye welcomed wing back Ewen “Crossal” MacKinnon back into the side following injury and he was to have an eventful afternoon. He broke two camans, got booked and took hefty knocks to each leg. A suitable welcome back to senior shinty! Skye attacked Glenurquhart from the throw up and in the opening minute, forwards Willie MacKinnon, John MacRae and Peter Gordon all tried to get the ball on target without success and the opportunity was lost. There were some tasty exchanges between Glen full forward Colin MacLean and Skye full back Duncan MacDougall. However one such incident was to leave the home side at a distinct disadvantage as MacDougall was left on the turf clutching his stomach and referee Brian Watts gave the Glen man his marching orders. Other than the frosty surface, the conditions were perfect for a game of shinty – warm and dry – although the sun did pose a problem for Skye keeper John “Bodach” Mackenzie. However that did not prevent him pulling off a string of fantastic saves in the early part of the match. One acrobatic stop was top drawer and the Skye keeper’s performance throughout the game would easily have earned him the man of the match tag. Skye were finding Glenurquhart difficult to break down and they didn’t seem to be making good use of their one man advantage. However the visitor’s finally made the break-through just 5 minutes from half time. Willie MacKinnon dribbled the ball towards the danger are before passing to John MacRae. MacRae lobbed the ball over his head before driving it into the hard surface and it bounced past Glen keeper Billy MacLeod’s legs and into the net. Skye forward Peter Gordon suffered a knock in the lead up to the goal and required treatment. However this seemed to spur him on and he made it 2-0 straight from the throw up. Skye manager Ross Cowie switched Caley MacLean to wing centre at the start of the second half with John Angus Gillies taking over at full centre. The Glen were by no means out of it and John “Bodach” Mackenzie had to save from the ever-dangerous Graham Young and veteran Ron Fraser. The remainder of the match was relatively scrappy other than some flashes of brilliance from Skye’s Willie Cowie. In fact it was Cowie who made it 3-0 on 54 minutes when he fired in a spectacular 30 yard effort although the ball did seem to take the slightest deflection off Willie MacKinnon’s caman as it flew past Billy MacLeod. There was no doubt that Skye’s fourth goal was Cowie’s as he benefited from some good lead up play between John Angus Gillies and Peter Gordon before crashing the ball into the net from around 18 yards out. Peter Gordon picked up another knock and was replaced by Ally Grant who went to wing centre with Andy Maclean moving into the attack. The switch paid dividends for Skye as MacLean showed some nice stick-work inside the D before tucking the ball into the net. Skye now had a semi final against either Strathglass or Beauly to look forward to. |