Shinty’s dominant force of recent seasons re-asserted its authority in claiming the first major trophy of the new season in the MacTavish Cup final at Bught Park in Inverness yesterday, but they were fully extended by a Kilmallie side that was running on high emotion.
The build-up to the encounter had been wholly over-shadowed by the Fort William-based club having to cope with the funerals of two famous names with the loss of sixties stalwart Donald Lamont, immediately before their previous match a fortnight ago, followed by deep tragedy with the death of Duncan Rodger, a member of their current squad.
Their players having unanimously rejected the Camanachd Association’s generous offer of a postponement of this live televised, showpiece occasion, their focus was on paying tribute in the best way possible as they took to the field wearing tee-shirts bearing the message: “Always with us – Donald and Duncan.”
Forward Michael Rodger meanwhile opted not to wear his own number 9 shirt in favour of the number 12 which would have been worn by his older cousin, his involvement in the match a triumph in itself.
There was no shortage of energy from him or his team-mates in the early exchanges, but from the outset the cup holders and Premiership champions of the past six seasons carried the greater threat and it was no surprise when they took the lead in 15 minutes with a Stephen MacDonald right-handed shot low to Kilmallie goal-keeper Shane Gillies’ left and they doubled their advantage 12 minutes later when, from a free hit, the scorer of the opener teed up clansman Drew.
When Fraser MacKintosh registered their third three minutes into the second half with an opportunist strike when he looked well covered, they looked set to cruise to victory.
However Rodger had been increasingly influential as the opening half had gone, his vision setting up his team’s best chances from a couple of free hits and he revived their challenge six minutes later when he gathered a pass from Innes Blackhall, too a couple of touches then, from close range, sent a sweetly struck left-handed shot beyond Norman Campbell, Newtonmore’s stand-in goal-keeper.
The favourites continued to have the better of the game, but were subjected to a testing last 15 minutes after Blackhall’s fellow teenager Calum MacDougall, who would deservedly win the man of the match award for a strong running and skilful overall showing, showed he could finish as well as create.
“I thought there was a bit of complacency,” said Newtonmore manager PJ MacKintosh.
“We were going really well at 3-0 but once they got one and got a second they were really up for it, so it was a bit of a nervous time but we got there.”
His Kilmallie counterpart Mark MacPherson meanwhile expressed his pride in the way his players had coped with the day, pointing out that this was also a significant challenge for a team that has only just returned to the Premiership after gaining promotion from the National League last season.
“They performed the way I thought they would,” he said.
“OK we got punished a wee bit for a few things and that’s the way it is. Every Premier team will do that, we’ve learned that in the league, but our fitness levels took us through and at 3-2 we kept going.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here