Beauly keep in touch at top of North Division One
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
BEAULY halted Kilmallie’s runaway surge towards the Marine Harvest North Division One title on Saturday, carving out a 1-0 win at Braeview with Marc Maclachlan’s strike in the 90th minute leaving no way back for Duncan Kelly’s side.
A win for the Canal Parks side would have opened up a four-point lead, leaving Beauly and the chasing pack playing catch-up.
Beauly’s victory, however, moves them into second, level on points with Kilmallie, but trailing only on goal difference.
In a fairly even match, Beauly enjoyed the bulk of the first half possession, but failed to make any real impression.
The hosts continued to be the team on top, yet their hopes suffered a setback on the hour mark when Conor Cormack was red carded for a second bookable offence.
Cormack’s departure was the signal for Kilmallie to pour forward and the Beauly defence looked stretched as Kelly’s side began to make the extra man pay.
Beauly were holding out when in a rare foray into Kilmallie half, Maclachlan conjured a goal out of nothing, beating the Kilmallie goalkeeper from 15 yards.
Beauly savoured the moment, but there has been little time to celebrate with the teams facing each other on Saturday in a MacTavish Cup quarter-final encounter.
This was the only North Division One fixture with the opening rounds of the Scottish Hydro Camanachd Cup and the Balliemore Cup occupying the other clubs in this division.
A 4-1 win for Caberfeidh over Bute in a preliminary round of the Camanachd Cup eases the Strathpeffer side into the first round proper where they will face Oban Celtic. It is also a measure of revenge for the Sky Blues, who lost 2-1 to Bute in the 2011 Balliemore final at Portree.
Bute were first to strike with James Craig opening the scoring in the 38th minute, but the visitors wilted after the interval with Ally MacLennan hitting a double and Craig Morrison and Jamie MacKintosh also on target.
Inverness are out of the Balliemore Cup following a 3-1 defeat to Skye in Portree. Despite the defeat, there was much to encourage fans of the city club side who put on a spirited performance, but endured the agony of missed penalty in the 80th minute when Mark Sproule had his spot hit saved by the Skye goalkeeper.
Neil MacVicar gave Skye an early lead with a strike in the eighth minute, but their advantage was shortlived with Inverness teenage prospect Charlie MacDonald firing home a superb strike in the 16th minute.
Kenny Campbell, however, restored Skye’s advantage shortly after the restart and with just 19 minutes remaining, Danny Morrison secured Skye’s place in the quarter-finals where they will be at home to Kilmallie.
Glasgow Mid Argyll edged out Taynuilt 2-0 and will face Beauly for a place in the last four, while Strachur are also through, beating Kilmory 1-0. They now take on Bute in the next round.
Meanwhile in the Orion Premiership, reigning champions Newtonmore cruised to an 8-1 victory at home to Kinlochshiel, despite the absence of injured striker Danny Macrae.
From the moment youngster Chris Sellar put ‘More ahead in the fourth minute, it was one-way traffic. Three goals by Fraser Mackintosh and four from Glen Mackintosh made the score 8-0 in Newtonmore’s favour, before ‘Shiel’s Gordie Macdonald finally managed a consolation in the 81st minute.
This result brings Newtonmore up to second in the table behind Inveraray, who hang on to their surprise status at the top of the Premiership courtesy of a 2-0 home victory over a Glenurquhart side very much depleted by injury.
Inveraray opened through Lewis MacNichol early in the first half and although the Glen came back into the match and had some control in the second half, they were simply unable to find the net.
The points were eventually secured for Inveraray in the 70th minute when player/manager Gary Macpherson smashed the ball past Glen’s international goalkeeper Stuart Mackintosh for a worthy winner.
Lovat kept themselves in title contention with a comfortable 4-0 home win over bottom side Oban Camanachd. Greg Matheson (two), Kevin Bartlett and Owen Ferguson were the men who did the damage for Lovat and they remain fourth in the table.
Just below them in fifth place are Kingussie, who also put two much-needed points on the board when defeating Fort William 3-0 away at An Aird.
A Thomas Borthwick strike was all that separated the sides at half-time, but a long range effort from Ally Walker and a goal on the final whistle by Paul Gow finally clinched victory for the red half of Badenoch.
Kyles Athletic move into third spot as a result of a 2-0 win over Lochaber at Tighnabruaich. Top scorer Roddy Macdonald was the man who made the difference, grabbing his two goals just before the interval.
Kyles, who were unable to hold on to a two-goal lead last week at Kinlochshiel, kept their composure this time around to see out a goal-less second half and finally stop the rot.
