The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
SHINY GAME GOES TO THE WIRE
HOW POWER LINE WON MATCH
An electricity wire incident shocked Kingussie and jolted Kinlochshiel to the last-minute winner which maintained their 100% record and booked their spot in the last eight of theMacTavish Cup.
Shiel manager Johnston Gill said:“Thewiresrunoverpartof the pitch and a ball hit the wire and dropped perfectly to our Gordon Macdonald. He slammed it forward to Keith MacRae, who won the tie with the last hit of the game.
“On rare occasions the ball does hit the wire and sometimes it benefits us, sometimes it works against us. This time i t worked against Kingussie.”
Kingussie manager Dallas Young said: “We were on the attack but paid a heavy penalty for the ball hitting the wire, dropping to their advantage and costing us our first defeat. However, we’ll take it on the chin and not make any excuses.”
The wire problem will be ended when Kinlochshiel move to their new pitch, which is under construction.
Kingussie suffered several setbacks in their 3-2 defeat, with Darren Hanlon taking ill on the journey west, Savio Genini coming off after 10 minutes with a hamstring problem and James Falconer also going off with a shoulder injury.
“We thought James had brokenhis shoulderbutit turns out to be tendon damage, though we’ll have to wait and see how long he is out fo r, ” said Young.
“Shiel are a quali t y side and showed us the standard we need to reach. But we battled very well in almost taking the tie to extra time, with James Hutchinson exceptional at full back.”
Shiel now have three wins out of three, with 10 goals scored, four of them by Keith MacRae, who also scored a last minute winner against Oban Camanachd.
“Someone said to me thatwe needed a goal and I replied that
“Sometimes it benefits us and sometimes not. This time it worked against Kingussie”
Keith would do the trick,” said Gill. “Seconds later he did just that.
“We dominated the second half and, although Kingussie put up strong resistance, wedeserve to go through. I was very pleased with the performance of 16- year- old Duncan WD Macrae when he got his chance in the second half. Conor Cormack was outstanding for us at half back and now we go to his former club Beauly in the next round.”
Shiel have never won the MacTavish and have aspirations to do so this time. Youngster Roddy Ross fired Kingussie ahead but two goals in fiveminutes just before the interval, by Jordan Fraser and Scott MacLean, put the home side in charge. Substitute Martin DallasslammedKings level 13minutes from time – thenMacRae’s winnersawShielwinit, literally on the wire.