Glenn scores for the Glen

See how misleading a headline can be. Not that Scots who have gone through a propaganda driven election campaign taking about “change” will be fooled by a mere headline. As the French say “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose” (the more things change, the more they remain the same)- so you’ll have to skip to the end to find out about Glenn.

In the meantime, lets focus on Ally Ferguson and Angus Morrison and the rest of the Lochaber guys who came up to Blairbeg last weekend.

Indeed, Lochaber-men have been coming into Glen Urquhart for hundreds of years : in the distant past, when they arrived their intention was to burn and steal cattle before clearing off home back down the Great Glen with their ill-gotten gains. In more recent time the clashes have been confined to the shinty field – and truth to tell honours have generally been even over the years. However, earlier this season when the Glen travelled down to Spean things did not turn out quite so well for the men of Urquhart. It was therefore particularly gratifying that in the return fixture – on Saturday 13^th 2024 - at Blairbeg the Glen put in a proper performance and ran out convincing winners by three goals to nil.  

How did that happen?     

Well, you’ve kind of got to be close to the club and actually see the team lines before the match to come away with a reasonable explanation. Either that or simply settle for saying “it’s a funny old game” in the chuckling tones of that late lamented football analyst Jimmy Greaves - incidentally a better striker and a wittier pundit than either Alan Shearer or Ally McCoist - but that’s another matter.  

Did the Wing Centre think that would happen? No. In fact the Treasurer was going to settle for the fact that the modern Lochaber folk like the Fort William folk are generous and that the collection would run into an acceptable three figures – and leave it at that. However, the opening minutes showed the game was going to go with the Glen if the early pattern held out: for a start Lachie Smith was totally dominating in defence and blotted out Mr Delaney who is let it be said a fair player. 

Sean Nicholson did not look to be at it- and Billy Urquhart carried on with his fine form of the season. Both Sean Brown and Fergus Robertson brought their “A” game as did  the centreline with Ally Mackintosh and John Barr rolling back the years.

The real issue however was the forward line-playing a south 2-2 formation at times or a 2-1-1- they all showed a level of pace and movement that we haven’t seen from a Glen forward line since we had Cameron, Maclennan, Heath and Reid all at the top of their game. Of course, that only happened on one day twelve years ago but it was marvellous while it lasted.

To be honest the Wing Centre’s favoured forward line up is the old-fashioned buckshee plus two wingers and the fat guy on the dust. That usually means that you are hitting balls from such a close range at the goalie that he does not generally save them- and any loose stuff coming out is immediately fired back past him. However, Kingussie burst that concept years ago when they replaced the fat guy with Ronald - and say what you like about him, whatever else he did in the game Ronald removed all fat guys from shinty’s equation. On the other hand, perhaps playing in the summer also did that.

So, what were the goals like? 

The first came in the tenth minute when Daniel Maclean picked up the ball out on the right wing and played it over to Charlie Macleod on the other side. He laid it back to Doug Brockie. With the Lochaber defence struggling to react Brockie pushed the ball in to Maclean and when his sharp shot was blocked by Lochaber keeper Macdonald, youngster Alfie Macleod knocked it home for the opener. The pace of the movement was a revelation but was quickly matched by the Glen’s second which came in 15 minutes from Charlie Macleod after further good work from Daniel Maclean had set him up with an opportunity to finish from just beyond the penalty spot.

Lochaber came back into the game for a spell after that and had some excellent and accurate distance shots which Glen keeper Stuart Mackintosh dealt with without fuss. 

One in particular was a collectors’ item when a fizzer of a shot angled in from the left looked to be net-bound only for “Smack” to block the dipping shot by pushing it up into the air and volleying it up-field with the heel of his club as it dropped. He did it all so quickly that there was no point at which the inrushing Lochaber front men could get a touch on either him or the ball.

Alfie Macleod then took a knock on the back of his hand which caused him to leave the field. Fortunately, there was no serious damage- but given the fact that he is going to Ireland with the Scotland under-17 squad next weekend he very sensibly stayed off for the rest of the match.

Daniel Maclean is also Ireland bound- and he had a further contribution to make to the match. This came in 35 minutes when he flicked the ball beyond his man into the path of Ryan Porter who smashed the ball high into the Lochaber net to make it 3-0 for the Glen. 

That effectively was that. The second half was a fast competitive affair and the Glen might easily have had a fourth late in the match but they failed to convert. Big Finlay Robertson came on towards the end to help seal up the centreline and that worked well though he did not have much time to shine.

As for Lochaber they had their chances but resolute defending, effective goal keeping and it has to be said inaccurate shooting meant that they could not get back into the game. The only disappointment was that Lachie Smith was booked: that means that after the Skye game on Saturday he will be out of action for the rest of the season. He has been hard done by over the season- that’s all that the Wing Centre will say. He is a dominating presence at the back and can hit the ball miles out of defence. What’s more- shinty is in his soul. He will be a great miss to the end of the season.

We are off to Skye on Saturday- the youngsters who are due to play in Ireland will surely not go for fear of injury and they have an early start on Sunday. There is a strong case for saying this game should have been called off given that two players will be missing and that it is important for our League position. Truthfully Doug Brockie should also have been in the squad as well- but it’s not before time that the Glen were represented at that level again.

Never mind, at least the girls also won. A 6-2 victory over Strathglass with Rowan Brockie, Roisa Brown, Emily Van Loon, Freya Gault and Amanda Maclennan (2) on the target.

The Men’s 2nds also played at Strathglass - the only thing reported to the Wing Centre about it was the fact that youngster Glen Macdonald scored a penalty-his first goal in a Glen shirt. This is the first time the headline “Glenn scores for the Glen” will have been used in print; you can be assured it won’t be the last.

(Thanks to Hazel Stewart for all the photographs)