PREMIER side Newtonmore won the cottages.com MacTavish Cup for the fourth year in a row, with a 3-0 victory over challengers Glenurquhart at Inverness’s Bught Park.
However, the final scoreline on Saturday does little to reveal how tight the game was, particularly in the first half when Glenurquhart, who play a division below More in the Mowi National League, took the game to the holders. With better finishing they might have upset the form book.
For Newtonmore manager Paul John MacKintosh, while agreeing this match was tougher than many would have predicted, the outcome was never in doubt.
He said: “We knew they would come at us hard from the off but we stuck to the game plan. I knew that if we kept playing shinty and moving the ball about we would get goals. I am delighted we’ve made it four in a row”.
Glenurquhart certainly opened strongly with neat link-up play between the front trio of Neale Reid, Conor Golabek and Ewan Brady putting pressure on the More backline – though wayward shooting saw several opportunities fail to find the target.
At the other end Newtonmore always carried a potent threat and there was an early let off for Glen after a miscued ball out of defence set up Glen MacKintosh for a point-blank strike but he was denied thanks to a superb reflex save from keeper Stuart MacKintosh.
More then lost centre Conor Jones to a head injury but his replacement, the experienced Jamie Robinson, quickly settled in the centerline berth and under his influence More created a series of chances but their shooting – particularly that of captain Evan Menzies – was at this stage proving to be inaccurate. About the half-hour mark, Glenurquhart suffered the loss of wing-forward Conor Golabek with a hamstring injury, and though he did attempt to resume later in the match his loss robbed his side of a degree of movement up front. They did however finish the first half on the up with More keeper Ross having to work hard to keep out shots.
The second half started ominously for Glen, with a yellow card for full-back John Barr for a trip, and though they continued to play with some flair, it continued in that way, with More – who had pushed centre Steven MacDonald forward – beginning to carve out better quality chances.
Eventually, after having had one strike ruled out for offside, they broke the deadlock in the 62nd minute when, following a period of pressure which had resulted in a corner, the ball broke in a central position for winger Iain Robinson, who fired it high past Mackintosh for the crucial opener. Glenurquhart continued to push back for a spell but gradually they stopped having serious chances, though Ross had to be quick off his line to prevent Oliver Black netting in a late foray forward.
With Glenurquhart visibly running out of steam Newtonmore finished them off with two late goals from Menzies. The first he scored from close range in 84 minutes when he was fed in by eventual man of the match Robinson, and the second came in stoppage time when he picked up a crossfield ball from Glen MacKintosh and finished clinically from outside the D.
A cruel ending to Glen’s cup dreams perhaps, but for Newtonmore – who have now won the MacTavish Cup 43 times since its inception – the win keeps alive the possibility of a clean sweep of shinty’s major trophies this season.
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