Skye Camanachd 2 Beauly 0. | |
25 February 2011 Skye Camanachd beat Beauly 2-0 in a pre-season friendly at Pairc nan Laoch, Portree on Saturday 19 February 2011. It was a much changed Skye line-up that took the field against recently relegated Beauly as several of last year’s second team and the 2009 London Shield winning team are now regulars in the first team squad. With Neil John Campbell, Scott MacLeod and Allan MacLeod all unavailable, the team had an experimental line up to it with goalkeeper John MacLeod playing at wing back and wing centre Scott Martin taking up the buckshee back role. John MacKenzie made his first appearance for the second team in the full forward role. Beauly also included a number of youth players in their ranks and despite having the wind advantage in the first half; they were pinned back by Skye from the first whistle. Although they had the bulk of the play in the first quarter of an hour, Skye only created two clear cut chances. The first saw Ally Macleod fire into the side netting and the second saw Beauly keeper Kyle MacDonald save with his feet from Allan MacKinnon. Skye captain Darryl MacKintosh was supplying plenty of ball to his attackers and he was ably assisted by left wing centre Daniel Morrison. Full forward John MacKenzie, who was having a good debut, looked the most likely forward to score as Skye maintained their grip on the game. Following good build up play involving Allan MacKinnon and Paul MacKinnon, MacKenzie was foiled by a smart save from Kyle MacDonald in the Beauly goal. Beauly almost opened the scoring with a fine break away move but Jamie Gannon in the Skye goal saved well with his feet from a long range David Groat effort. Skye continued to create openings and Paul MacKinnon shot wide and then Ally MacLeod fired over the bar following the best move of the first half involving MacKintosh, MacKenzie and Paul MacKinnon. The second half was barely 3 minutes old when Skye finally opened their account. Paul MacKinnon won the ball on the left wing and played a perfectly weighted cross-field pass into the path of Ally MacLeod. MacLeod controlled the ball before firing into the bottom left hand corner of the Beauly net from the edge of the D. MacLeod almost doubled Skye’s lead 5 minutes later when he blasted past the prostrate Beauly keeper only for full back Rory Campbell to make a last ditch save on the line. As Skye maintained their grip on the game, Daniel Morrison set up MacKenzie in the buckshee forward position. Mackenzie created space before firing a rasping drive towards the Beauly goal only to see Beauly keeper MacDonald pull off a superb save, tipping the ball over the bar. Skye manager Davie MacVicar then introduced John Gillies at full forward in place of MacKenzie and after only 30 seconds on the field, Gillies netted his first goal for the Skye second team to make it 2-0. Beauly were not giving up the fight and they continued to battle hard throughout the game without causing any real danger for the Skye defence. Skye introduced Mark Mortimer for Stewart Grant at wing centre and Calum Gibb at wing back for John MacLeod for the last 30 minutes without upsetting their control of the game. Skye did manage to put the ball in the net for a third time when Allan MacKinnon crashed a Daniel Morrison corner into the top corner of the net. However frustratingly for MacKinnon, referee John MacLeod had blown for full time before the ball crossed the line. Skye Camanachd second team management duo Davie MacVicar and Murdo Morrison were pleased with the effort and commitment shown by their players; particularly youngsters Daniel Morrison and Mark Mortimer. Beauly’s top performers were Kyle MacDonald in goals and defenders Campbell, MacKay and Holmes. Skye Camanachd from; Jamie Gannon, David Grant, Iain Grant, John MacLeod, (Calum Gibb), Scott Martin, Stewart Grant, (Mark Mortimer), Darryl MacIntosh (captain), Daniel Morrison, Paul MacKinnon, Allan MacKinnon, Ally MacLeod, John MacKenzie (John Gillies) Referee – John MacLeod The match balls are sponsored by Nor-Dan |