Night Falls on Ardnamurchan as Lighthouse Lads Extinguished

Glenurquhart 8 Ardnamurchan 0

So the headline is strained - but when nothing rhymes with Ardnamurchan and Lighthouse is too risqué to pun with, you have to make do with what you can. Still, this score line was probably the best piece of revenge for the Glen Frasers against the caterans from the Rough Bounds since Iain Muideartach wiped the bog with them at the Battle of the Shirts in 1544 -apart from last year’s result of course. Yet the boys from the far west should not worry too much because on this form the Glen seconds are a match for the Glen firsts. Not only that but in Colm O’Rua, the Ardnamurchan boys have a goalie with a very good eye : he may have been annoyed with one goal which he let in in the first half, but in the second period he got his club to shot after shot from the young Glen marksmen and their frustration was plain to all.
Last week Ardnamurchan had a good win over Inverness: this week their management put out a team of youngsters -it’s the only way forward- and came up against a Glen side which had all of its own youngsters available because the Isle of Skye had shipped too much water to allow shinty to be contemplated. In the snap above two of the Glen youngsters contemplate a cunning plan.
Glen opened the scoring through Neale Reid in 10 minutes when he picked up a cross from Ben Hosie and clipped the ball past O’Rua . The keeper played his part in delaying the second goal until the 30 minute mark when Hosie came in from the left to score with a fine drive. Hosie grabbed the Glen’s third before Reid wrote his name all over the match with three well taken strikes the last being a particularly powerful strike . This sent the visitors in with a six goal deficit but if they were downhearted it did not seem apparent. The Wing Centre was taking his tea on the steps of the bothy shooting the breeze with a great and famous legend of the past when he was disconcerted by an almighty roar from the away dressing room which made him gulp a mouthful of his brew too quickly . Obviously the Ardnamurchan boys had been to a motivational trainer in Morvern or more likely they had been watching too many videos of the NFL because they came roaring out of the changing room all psychoed -up. The suspicion is that O’Rua was behind it all ; being a goalie he is probably more in touch with his psycho side than the other guys.
Whatever was behind the war chant it worked : for large parts of the second half, Ardnamurchan kept the Glen at bay except for two solo goals by Billy Urquhart. The first involved a mazy run through the Ardnamurchan defence , a tap in and then a semi-circular stumble round the box in celebration . The Bill completed the scoring with a neat finish some time later and Mr Henderson permitted the subs to take the field. The only incident of note occurred in the last quarter when the Ardnamurchan goalkeeper noticed he had a nasty cut on his knee and Charles Young took a delegation up to the top goals where a metal post holder was spotted coming through the ground. The keeper had gone down on the spike in the first half but had not noticed the damage until much later. Our own musical goalie has played in between these sticks all season obviously without damage to himself or even his accordion -but then he doesn’t need to do diving. Still it is a worry and no doubt it will have to be fixed if it can be found again.
The match was quite engrossing though the park was a little sticky and very fortunately it was not required to take two games. Best for the Glen were the young guns up front but Calum, Duncan and Ewan Fraser played solidly at the back and kept the West Coasters at bay for the whole match which is more than their ancestors did 400 odd years ago. Bradley Dickson also looked lively when he came on late in the second half while in the Wing Centre’s opinion the most focused man in the centre line was Ali Mackintosh. Strong , fit and skilled , he is one for the present, never mind the future.
There was a nice turn out of observers for the match and Peter Jackson was noted to be present with his young Kilmallie squad though none of the Glasaich appeared to take in the match which was a shame. Turning their backs on their old friends maybe or perhaps, through a natural modesty they are unwilling to appear amongst the downtrodden in a position of superiority. Most probably they were still in their beds.
Big George , Raymond and Donald Maclean were over in the morning with two teams of youngsters however ,and all joking aside ,they helped get the Glen-Albyn League off to a flying start along with Balnain, Invergarry and two sides from Glen Primary. An excellent competition and a big plus for the future of the indigenous sport in this Glen and all others.