SATURDAY saw cup shinty come to the fore in the southern area, with match of the day at Oban’s Mossfield Park. There, present holders Oban Camanachd had a surprisingly comfortable 5-0 win over fellow Premiership side Inveraray in the semi-final of the Glasgow Celtic Society Cup.
First contested in 1879, the “Celtic”, now sponsored by Scottish Sea Farms Ltd, is the oldest trophy in the sport and still serves as the de facto championship of shinty’s southern area. Given its history, it is little wonder that Oban Camanachd manager Stephen Sloss was quick to praise his players after their victory. “Our second half play in particular was pleasing,” he said.
“Myself and co-manager Kenny Wotherspoon are new to this group of players and we have been pushing them to give more, particularly in the second half of games. They certainly stepped up to it, and as the game went on our fitness began to come through.
“We are of course the holders and it’s good to get a chance to retain the trophy”
Though the final scoreline looks quite convincing, the opening stages – played in wet, slippery conditions – were anything but one-sided. Indeed, Inveraray could have gone ahead in the 12th minute when full-forward Lewis MacNicol forced Oban keeper Cammy Sutherland into an excellent stop to keep the scores even.
Oban then began to find their rhythm and gradually their centerline, anchored by Lorne Dickie in the middle, began to gain control of the match. It fed the ball forward, where their formation of three deep forwards with Andrew MacCuish up at point, began to test the Inveraray defence. Eventually, in the 24th minute, Oban made the breakthrough after good work by Aiden MacIntyre on the wing saw the ball fed through to Daniel MacVicar. His cut inside found MacCuish, who knocked the ball high past Rary keeper Scott MacLachlan.
The Inveraray defence dug in for the next spell and, with veteran Gary MacPherson at half-back keeping close tabs on Oban’s international forward Daniel Cameron, they managed to keep the home side at bay for almost the rest of the first half. They didn’t quite make it, however, as on 41 minutes, in what was almost a carbon copy of the opener, a ball fed forward down the wing was held up by MacCuish and eventually pushed inside to Cameron, who made no mistake from 15 yards.
After the restart, Oban began to tighten their control of the match and they finally killed off any thoughts of a comeback, with two quick goals midway through the half. The first of these in the 64th minute fell to youngster Daniel MacCuish, who picked up a through ball from Lorne Dickie to fire a low shot past Sutherland to make it 3-0. Two minutes later came Oban’s fourth counter of the afternoon, this time courtesy of Daniel Cameron, who picked up the ball deep, broke through two challenges from a tiring Inveraray defence and hit a bouncing ball from the edge of the D that completely deceived Sutherland.
All that remained was for Oban substitute Garry MacKerrachar to wrap up the afternoon by adding his side’s final goal of the afternoon with a simple tap-in five minutes before the final whistle.
In what will be a rerun of last year, Oban now meet Kyles Athletic in the final, after the Tighnabruaich side eventually managed to beat Glasgow Mid Argyll 3-2 at Yoker.
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