Injury mars opening day win for Glen
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GLENURQUHART have been left counting the cost of an opening day victory in the Orion Premiership after their international forward Andy Corrigan sustained a suspected broken hand.
Corrigan was a surprise inclusion in Glen’s starting line-up after he managed to arrange time off from his Aberdeen oil industry post but was forced out in obvious pain just before the interval.
His injury took the shine off Glen’s sparkling 4-0 victory over Kinlochshiel in a fixture which has traditionally proved tricky for the red and blacks.
The first half was as evenly contested as expected, although Glen keeper Stuart MacKintosh was rarely called into action.
With half-time approaching, Glen’s James MacPherson rounded off a passing move to open the scoring, sending them in with a half-time advantage.
If the first half had been evenly contested, the second belonged to Glenurquhart. After 53 minutes Lewis Maclennan picked up a rebound to fire home and on the hour MacPherson netted his second and put the game out of ’Shiel’s reach.
Neale Reid completed the scoring with a close range strike in the 74th minute.
In the dying minutes there was the welcome sight for Glen fans when former under-21 star Stuart Reid came off the substitutes’ bench to make his first appearance in a Glen shirt for a couple of seasons.
The result sees Glenurquhart head the table after the matches at Newtonmore and Kingussie were postponed following bereavements affecting visitors Lochaber and Inveraray.
Lovat’s got their season off to a subdued start with a 2-0 home win over Kyles Athletic. A dominant first half performance should have produced better reward than Owen Ferguson’s 18th minute goal. After the interval Alan MacRae’s side almost paid the penalty when Kyles regrouped to take the match to the home side.
Lovat keeper Stuart MacDonald responded to being handed the captain’s armband for the 2014 season with a series of smart saves to keep their advantage intact. Greg Matheson doubled Lovat’s lead in the final minute.
Lovat manager Alan MacRae will be pleased to have overcome a potentially difficult opener, but against a Kyles side short of their strongest line-up he would have expected a more convincing victory.
The opening day of the new season proved to be a fairly low-key affair due in part to the high number of postponements — 12 of the scheduled 22 matches failed to go ahead, due mainly to waterlogged pitches.
In the Marine Harvest National Division, only two of the four scheduled matches beat the floods.
Beauly head the table following a 3-1 win over Glasgow Mid Argyll at Braeview.
Mid Argyll came out of the blocks well to dominate the opening exchanges. In the seventh minute Craig Anderson took advantage of sloppy defending to fire the visitors ahead.
Beauly’s goal survived a couple of close calls after that but in the 38th minute David MacLean levelled from the edge of the area.
He hit his second four minutes later and early in the second half Ross Forbes put Beauly in command with a close range strike.
Caberfeidh’s pre-season optimism was dented by Oban Camanachd who scored in the final minute to take both points with a 2-1 victory. Blair Morrison had given Cabers the lead in the third minute but Oban levelled with Andrew MacCuish on target in the 35th minute. MacCuish got the winner right at the death.
Those fearing mismatches in the newly formed North Division One, where senior sides are mixed with reserve teams, had those apprehensions confirmed on Saturday, with Beauly and Lovat reserves suffering heavy defeats at the hands of the first teams of Skye and Strathglass.
Strathglass thrashed Lovat colts 8-1 at Cannich, while Skye overran a young Beauly side 6-0 at Portree.
Inverness, after a promising set of results in pre-season friendlies, came crashing down to earth at the hands of Newtonmore reserves, who handed out a 6-1 drubbing to Alan MacLeod’s side.
It proved a day to forget for Inverness area sides in this division, with Glenurquhart losing 4-1 at Kingussie, with a late Jack Hosie strike all that Glen had to show for their efforts.
In Division Two, Boleskine prevailed 5-4 over Fort William reserves at Smith Park.
