Beauly young shinty stars defeat Kingussie to be crowned champions
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BEAULY Shinty Club lifted the MacTavish Juvenile Cup with a 4–0 victory over Kingussie in the final on Saturday.
The youngsters lifted the trophy in front of a home crowd with a stunning performance at Braeview.
Beauly went 2–0 in front at half time thanks to goals from Kieran Rennie who gave them the lead after 15 minutes and Finlay ‘Stork’ Maclennan, doubling their advantage in the 32nd minute.
Goalkeeper Lennox Stewart saved a penalty to maintain Beauly’s two goal advantage and the hosts made it count as they secured victory with goals from Finlay Stork Maclennan and Finlay Maclennan in the second half.
Head coach Gregor MacCormick says it was an outstanding performance from his team to lift the trophy who were made to work harder than the scoreline suggested.
“We dominated long parts of the game, but Kingussie were always in it right up until we got the final two goals,” he said.
“The third goal did get us over the line and drove us on to win the game. But it was a close match and both teams competed really well to put on a great game of shinty.
“There was a great support for both teams which was great to see and it created a good atmosphere.”
After success at various age groups at youth level, MacCormick now hopes the success of Beauly will transfer into senior level and hopefully see the club challenge for promotion from the second-tier National Division into the Premiership in the next few years.
“For the boys themselves, winning this trophy is culmination of hard work over the years.
“Finally getting over the line and winning this cup, which we haven’t won for a few years is a fantastic stepping stone for the lads.
“Some of these players will now move up into senior level and for Beauly Shinty Club, we hope that it is a building block for these players to push on into the first team.
“We want the lads to take this opportunity as they are fantastic players.
“We just need to keep developing them when they get into the first team.
“Our aim is to make Beauly a Premiership team and now the boys have tasted success, we hope that will push them on to wanting more.”
He added: “If we can get some of these boys into the first team with the same desire and hunger as they have already shown, we can challenge to get into the Premiership.”
