Fort William 1 Skye Camanachd 1 | |
05 July 2011 Skye Camanachd earned a valuable point towards their Marine Harvest North Division 2 campaign following a 1-1 draw with Fort William at An Aird on Saturday 2 July 2011. A couple of late call offs meant Skye travelled to Fort William with only 14 players so manager Davie MacVicar included himself a squad which otherwise have had an average age of 18. The players missing from the previous week were Shaun Hedley, who was on first team duty, and Ross Graham, Andrew Grant, Donnie Campbell and Allan MacLeod who were all unavailable. Allan MacKinnon, Magnus Burd and MacVicar were added to the previous week’s squad. Skye had the wind advantage in the first half against what was also a very youthful Fort William line up with Mike Sleazes the only recognised experienced player in their ranks. Despite a couple of early half chances for Skye, it was Fort William who opened the scoring on the 8 minute mark. There seemed little danger when Peter Wood picked up a loose pass in midfield but he turned and sent an outrageous 45 yard drive thundering into the roof of the Skye net past a bemused John MacLeod. Skye’s first real attempt at goal came on 17 minutes when Allan MacKinnon could only find the side netting after being played in by Daniel Morrison. Skye came even closer to scoring in their next attack when John MacKenzie slipped the ball out to Iain MacLellan who turned his marker following a bit of keepy-uppy but he could only find the side net with an audacious aerial volley. With 8 minutes of the first half remaining, Magnus Burd came on in place of John MacKenzie as manager MacVicar attempted to introduce a more physical approach in the Skye forward line. As the half drew to a close, Fort William full centre Bobby MacMillan sent a blistering 30 yard drive on target and only a finger-tip save by keeper John MacLeod prevented Skye from going further behind. Fort William picked up the pace at the beginning of the second half and John MacLeod again came to his team’s rescue when he saved a Ewen Campbell shot with his feet. Campbell was again denied by MacLeod ten minutes later. A tactical switch that saw Ally MacDonald move from full centre to buckshee forward with Allan MacKinnon taking his place resulted in Skye gaining more possession which they began to use to advantage. Skye almost conjured up an equaliser around 15 minutes into the second half. A quickly taken Ally MacLeod corner picked out Allan MacKinnon and his well hit drive took a deflection off defender Cameron Grant as it headed towards the roof of Fort net only for keeper Cal Brown to pull off a superb tip over save. Skye began to grow in confidence and Ally MacDonald sent a fizzing drive just wide after being set up by Daniel Morrison. In a double substitution, Skye replaced Daniel Morrison and Ally MacLeod with John MacKenzie and Mark Mortimer. In Skye’s next attack Ally MacDonald sent a weighted pass to Iain MacLellan who turned and sent in a thundering shoulder high drive that brought a superb one handed save from Cal Brown in the Fort goal. In a last attempt to salvage the game, player manager MacVicar came on in place of John MacKenzie with a little over 10 minutes remaining. Shortly after coming on, MacVicar picked up a loose ball from defence and sent a measured pass into the path of Iain MacLellan who turned Fort full back Kyle Grant before racing in on goal, only to be upended by Grant on the edge of the D. Skye committed their midfield to the attack in order to take numerical advantage from the free hit. With players jockeying for position, Allan MacKinnon slipped the ball to Magnus Burd on the edge of the D where his first time shot was saved by keeper Brown but Burd was quickest to the rebound and he rounded the keeper before slipping the ball home from a tight angle to make it 1-1. This was a solid team performance from a very young Skye team that included 8 teenagers and it was a deserved point which sets the Islanders up in confident mood for next week’s Aberdein Considine Sutherland Cup semi final. Fort William from; to follow Skye Camanachd from; John MacLeod (captain), David Grant, Iain Grant, Martin Bruce, Scott MacLeod, Ally MacLeod, Allan MacKinnon, Stewart Grant, Ally MacDonald, John MacKenzie, Daniel Morrison, Iain MacLellan, subs Magnus Burd, Mark Mortimer, Davie MacVicar Match Referee – Gus Campbell The match balls are sponsored by Nor-Dan |