SATURDAY’s main shinty action was in the Tulloch Homes Camanachd Cup, with match of the day being the first-round replay at Balgate where home side Lovat faced holders Newtonmore. With the first match at The Eilean ending in a 1-1 draw, and despite Callum Cruden being unavailable after his red card, Lovat were always hopeful that they could go one better on home turf.
It was not to be, however, and despite a valiant effort, Newtonmore eventually won out 3-0, though it took until extra time for the Badenoch side to finally find the net. Hero for the holders was substitute Ewan Fraser who hit an extra-time double, with veteran Fraser MacKintosh adding another just before the close. It racked up a margin of victory which was hardly justified on the balance of play.
For Lovat manager Fraser Gallagher, the pain of defeat was made worse by the fact that the loss served to illustrate how difficult it is to compete at shinty’s top level when you have no real depth to your first team squad. “ I thought we played well throughout and in parts controlled the game but in the end the injury to Craig Mainland – we were also missing his brother Martin and, of course, Callum Cruden – meant that we just simply ran out of bodies,” he said. “To rub it in, Newtonmore had quality players like Ewan Fraser and Fraser MacKintosh on the bench and that made all the difference.”
Lovat were undone by a mixture of inaccurate shooting and a top-class performance from More keeper Kenny Ross. As early as the fifth minute, half-forward Greg Matheson passed up an excellent chance when he scooped the ball past when one-on-one with the veteran More goalie.
Ross certainly had more to do on 26 minutes, when he kept out a fierce drive from Lovat frontman Marc MacLachlan. That stop, plus others in the first half from both Matheson and again from MacLachlan, as well as dealing with an unexpected deflection from the caman of team-mate Rory Kennedy, meant Ross had a huge influence on the outcome of this match.
At the other end the More forwards began to exert their own pressure, though for the most part in the early stages the Lovat defence restricted them to shooting from distance, with Iain Robinson, under pressure from marker Dan Grieve, hitting at least four opportunities wide .
Gradually as the game progressed into the second half, pressure began to build more and more around the Lovat goal and crucially the loss to injury in the 65th minute of key defender Mainland fatally weakened the home side.
At this point, Newtonmore brought on substitute Fraser. The former Boleskine player had missed much of the start of the season with hamstring problems but there was no evidence of any hangover as his direct running at pace began to open up a tiring home defence from that point on.
Eventually, 10 minutes into the first period of extra time, Fraser got the all -important opener when, after intense More pressure, he clipped a shot on target and had the good fortune to see it deflect off the stick of defender Graeme MacMillan and past Lovat keeper Stuart MacDonald.
A cruel stroke of luck certainly, but even worse was to follow for Lovat in 111 minutes when Fraser skipped away from defender Lewis Tawse to bag his second of the afternoon. MacKintosh then sealed the tie for Newtonmore with a fine strike just before the final whistle.
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