Banishing the Blues and Browsing on the Green Shoots of Recovery.......or something

 

It’s possible that some good times are on the way in what could be thought of as the beleaguered world of Glen Shinty. The under-17s and the Ladies sides-barring the odd hiccup- seem to be going from strength to strength and meanwhile the second team have popped up with two wins in a row which is most welcome.

The most recent of these results- and indeed probably the most decent - was a 5-0 home win over Beauly. Now it's hard to draw comparisons but the Beauly seconds have defeated us for the past two years- and everyone knows that Beauly must have had a tricky time getting a side together given that it was the day of the Highland Cross and that Astie in his wisdom had sent their top team many miles away to the Isle of Bute-though I see from the results that worked out OK for them. I guess it might have been that Bute had more guys away in Germany - certainly the Glen had a few and one guesses Beauly might have had a few absentees as well.

Before the Beauly game we had a  3-1win over Lochcarron . They seem to be having an equally tricky time - but their play in general is good enough so that they do not lose by very much at all. Glen on the other hand being the second side in a two-club set up are very dependent on playing our youngsters at this level - and that puts immense pressure on them.

Now they happen to be good most of the time but physically they can not really stand up to the full-grown adult Silverbacks that strut their stuff in some other teams. However, we had some Silverbacks of our own for the Lochcarron game Andrew Corrigan in particular and he along with Mike Fraser made a huge difference and of course since we only had the one game we had four youngsters who normally play in the top side- John Cameron, Alfie Macleod, Daniel Maclean and Sean Brown.

The Glen dominated the game but as always there was a fly in the ointment and that was Peter Mackenzie, the Lochcarron keeper. He put in a fantastic performance in the first half in particular, stopping a series of shots that really should have seen us several goals ahead by half time. In fact although we took the lead in the 17^th minute through Alfie Macleod we were pegged back to 1-1 when Lochcarron evergreen Gregor Cushnie, in one of their rare attacks, bagged an opportunistic goal in 42 minutes.

The second half was more of the same with Mackenzie refusing to be beaten, keeping out another barrage, before an excellent double from under -17  player Daniel Maclean towards the later stages of the half saw the Glen coast home comfortably .

The Beauly match looked at first sight more problematic with the four youngsters drafted for the previous game heading to the Dell. What they had done to deserve that fate is a mystery to the Wing Centre but with the return from injury of Eddie Tembo and Neale Reid – and with Tommy Ellis on the bench as a striker confidence returned to the spectators in the West Stand. If only we would get a sound system and a fake Highlander to wind us up at the start of a game with the Bught Park cry of “Let’s play Shuntee!!” the whole aesthetic experience would be much better.

It was however good enough though Beauly’s Kyle Macdonald obviously had not read the script. How the spectators wished that Kyle had gone with Storkie and Beaver and got lost in the Affric Hills. (I know-but sometimes I wonder if Beauly have more wildlife in their teams than Sir John has on his whole Aigas Estate- and I don’t just mean the ones with nicknames) 

However, he did not and proceeded to keep out a range of shots including a rocket from Jed Stoddart that had the Glen forwards wondering aloud as to how Beauly have such a good keeper and don’t play him every week in the firsts-but there you go. Then,just when you though things were going to change, young Cork who had been bobbing about in the shinty shallows did what he does best and fired the ball high over the bar. Of course, it turned out that he was just getting his eye in and eventually just before the interval he rasped the ball low past Kyle to put the Glen one up. To prove it was true Astie even put it up on the results page.

Look : Andrew Corrigan 1 (39')

So that was the start – and throughout the course of the second half the Glen stretched their lead.   First Neale Reid notched a nice goal and then Angus MacCallum finished smartly to make it three in 66 minutes. 

It took that length of time to make a real breakthrough as Sandy Tulloch had marshalled his young team excellently with one of his stars being the young wingback Liam Maclean who took the honours as top Beauly player on the day. How they missed Sean Stewart though-he made the difference in the last game. Thankfully he wasn’t present this time.

What changed the balance of play however was when Sandy came off for Beauly- he’d had a big influence on the game. Then Tommy Ellis came on up front for the Glen...and boy did he start on the front foot in the final third. In fact he actually had the ball in the net three times in the last quarter - only two of which were allowed to stand. All followed the same pattern - a hard shot in on Kyles and Big Tommy following up quickly to connect with the rebound and fire it home. It was simple but effective finishing.

Tommy’s build probably helps - he’s a serious size and as indestructible as an …an Abrams Tank (the endless search for metaphor and simile is tiring but ultimately worthwhile) 

If Tommy runs in on goalkeepers, they stay run in on.  It’s certainly difficult for them to keep their nerve-though to be fair Kyle managed it. However,  he was undone by the pace of the initial close range shots which he couldn’t direct wide. The fact that Tommy was closing him down made him rush- a point that EJ made to the guys at the end of the match. We don’t do enough of that.

There we have it.

Anyway, next game up is Strathglass.

Once upon a time, the Wing Centre used to tease Strathglass and put out stuff like this:

He wouldn’t dare do it now. For one thing, some of the more "woke" Glassaich would complain and secondly, up until today at least, Penry has scored more goals than the whole Glen Team. No point in antagonising and incentivising him. That would be really stupid.

That’s the whole point of the game

So it wasn’t a pointless afternoon at all. That’s a good thing though it would have been better with both points but there did not seem anyway that the Glen were going to get that. Given that opponents Kyles had lost heavily the week before to Lochaber there was every fear that the Glen would catch as they say “the backlash.”

Whatever that backlash might or might not have been the Glen certainly did not catch any of it though one cannot blame Kyles for not trying. They opened strongly and for the first 15 minutes or so pressed heavily on the Glenurquhart defence- and fired off a string of mainly accurate shots which were dealt with by Glen keeper Stuart Mackintosh. “Smack” was not a long-term Scotland international keeper for no reason- and for the first time this season he was wearing shorts so that might have made a difference. It certainly taught the south shinty world that you can fire as many hard high accurate shots on the Glen goal as you like but Smack will “do his job”

However, on the 15-minute mark Kyles neat forward play resulted in their opening goal when former Sgiathanach front man James Pringle fired a powerful shot past the Glen keeper from relatively close in. Another quarter of an hour passed and Kyles Connor Kennedy doubled their advantage with a very similar strike beating the Smackster from about the penalty spot with another hard low drive. So far -so bad. The goal prompted the Wing Centre to get a move on and urge the Treasurer to uplift the collection because there was a fair chance that if this on-field behaviour carried on there would not be a collection to take because everyone would have gone home.

The collections at Drum are always interesting because what you pick up in the container is literally a mixed bag- regularly some foreign coins, euros from French, German & Dutch tourists, Canadian and US nickels or dimes or whatever, nuts, nails the occasional screw and most memorably recently-a fishing fly. A very pretty fly indeed but that was not what the Treasurer said when he got it slightly impaled on his finger as he counted the cash.

However, before the collection could take place the Glen suddenly turned things around with Ryan Porter netting from close range to make the score 2-1 at half time. The Glen faithful exchanged glances – “Could this really be happening?”

Apparently, it could – and from looking at the pattern of play it actually did. Youngsters Alfie Macleod and Daniel Maclean began to put Kyles defenders under pressure while the OAPs like John Barr and Billy Urquhart not to mention Mr Corrigan (Henry’s dad) began to get a new lease of life and actually believe that something could be done. You could not say that they suddenly started skipping over Billy’s field like they were stots let out of the winter shed to enjoy the spring grass-but you get the picture. In the end youngster Doug Brockie brought the sides level when he ignored all the nonsense and popped the ball over the line after a kerfuffle that was going to end in a penalty. Wisely referee Dessie McNulty ignored the pleas from the Kyles defence to award the penalty for the foul on Dixie Maclennan. He let the goal stand and young Doug was able to command an article in Tuesday’s Inverness Courier as he had actually scored his first senior goal.

The rest of the game was pretty tight- and it has to be said that Des did Kyles a favour though from the way some of them reacted you would never believe that. Big Calum Miller the full back probably should have received a red card for losing his discipline late in the second half.

He stayed on - and Kyles stayed in the match - indeed in the last ten minutes or so they woke up and pushed again for a winning goal. They didn’t make it - though to read the comments of their Skye-born front men in some publication or other you would think they were worth the win. That’s the trouble with Skye men - the further from Kyleakin they originate the less logical they become. One thing is true about shinty is that you sometimes get what you deserve: the Glen deserved a point; Kyles deserved a red card - but there you go - they also got a point and I guess a point is more valuable to them than it is to us.

In other news the under-17s and the girls’ teams continue to overperform. The U-17 Development side defeated Strathglass 5-1 with four goals from Glenn Macdonald and 1 from Rowan Brockie. Later in the week they went on to defeat Glengarry 10-2, this time with goals from Glenn Macdonald (6) Daniel van Loon (2) Tyler Wilson (1) and Kaleb Power (1).

Meanwhile in the top U-17 squad in the London Shield the Glen beat Kilmallie 9-3 with goals from David Hart (4) Daniel Maclean (3) Seonaidh Macleod (1) Alfie Macleod(1)

As for the ladies a 9-0 away to Ardnamurchan - Hazel Hunter (4) Lyndsay  Fleming (3) and Zoe Smith (2) was matched by the second string side who won 3-2 away to Lochaber thanks to a hat-trick from Rowan Brockie. 

Above and beyond that Glen Urquhart High School girls’ side had a triumphant trip down the road to Uddingston where they picked up the Tunnock’s Cup beating Kingussie in the final. You could say that takes the biscuit- but then again perhaps that’s the whole point.

(Action shots from Neil Paterson-Many thanks, Neil. Nice to see you. Team shots from Glen Facebook)