Not the best of Saturdays for the Glen- though Marine Harvest Award finally brightens up Treasurer's week-end .

Kingussie 5 Glenurquhart 1
Glengarry 4 Glenurquhart 2 (AET)
Not the best Saturday for Glen shinty then. The defeat of the big team in Kingussie was hardly a surprise given the fact that four of the side which made the move up to the top are now sidelined for a variety of reasons : Arran Macdonald, Andrew Macdonald, Paul Mackintosh and of course Eddie Tembo were not part of the squad. That necessitated Drew Maclennan, Ben Hosie and Ian Macleod being called in to fill the breach in the big side while the absence of these three plus the unavailability of Donald Fraser and Andrew Crichton were just too much for the second string to survive without. So all the excuses up front then but every club has these ups and downs-it’s just a pity that these problems all came on the one Saturday and Hendo’s Heroes are now out of the Strathdearn to a Glengarry side that probably are not as good as the Glen at their strongest.
Over at the Dell, the reports indicate that the Glen centreline had an excellent opening 30 minutes in which they pumped a rake of balls up to the front men but the goals did not come and in every sense the game was then up though it took a while to come to pass.. Kingussie scored through Thain in 30 minutes but the red and blacks went in at half time only one down and with a fair feeling that they really did merit at least a goal on the scoreboard. The second half was the same old...same old. Thain bagged his second and then with the Glen heads down Ross picked up two. With the Glen on the back foot John Gibson pinched the fifth.
At around this time Ben Hosie was introduced and it was clear from the outset that the surface of the Dell suited his style and within a few moments of coming on he had played at least three balls into the danger area between the D and the penalty area which caused some confusion in the Kingussie defence. From one of his movements the ball came across from the defence to Lewis Maclennan and he finished well. It was however too little too late.
What do we say then to this result? Not a lot except to confirm that when the chances are present the real trick is to take them. That is what Kyles did against Kingussie- and the bottom line is that is what we need to do.
The second team have a greater claim to being hard done by since they were leading Invergarry by 2 goals to 0 at half time thanks to strikes from Ewan Brady and Stuart Morrison. The problem with Glengarry is that “DeeDee” Cameron will run all day, every day and most of tomorrow as well and in the end his will power made the difference. The extra time nonsense was hard for the Glen to bear-the Wing Centre feels and always has that a Cup draw should earn a replay and that the play to a finish rule favours the home side. Then again it worked in our favour on a previous occasion.
The absence of Drew Maclennan, Ben Hosie and Iain Macleod plus the injury to Euan “Boo-boo” Fraser undermined the cause and allowed the Garry - as robust in their tackling as ever the Wing Centre remembers –to flourish. Good luck to them in the next round though if there is a law governing such affairs then they have used up their season’s full allocation of luck in the one afternoon.
The Glen of course did win something last week after all: a Marine Harvest award of £250. The Wing Centre has long bemoaned the fact that the Glen always seemed to miss out on Marine Harvest “Club of the Month” awards over the years so this little surprise coming as it did after a tricky pair of results did brighten up the day.
A picture. Something else to brighten up the day. The Glen at Canal Park with the North Division 1 Cup- in the background a rainbow, symbol of renewal. Prophetic or what? Destined to become an iconic photo if only because its composition is crazy. Why is young Neale not in his strip and balancing the picture? Why is JB not in the middle of the front row? Not even Mr Ferguson of the Write Image who took the pic and gave permission to the D to use it can work out what was going on at Canal Park that day. Still it fair brings it all back.


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