Kingussie storm back from two goals down to beat Caberfeidh and win MacTavish Cup in Inverness
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MacTavish Cup final
Kingussie 5
Caberfeidh 2
Scorers – Kingussie: Genini (41, 44) Young (77) Borthwick (79) Anderson (85) Caberfeidh: Maclennan (6) Morrison (34)
Kingussie stormed back from two goals down to thrash Caberfeidh and lift the MacTavish Cup for the first time in 11 years.
The Premiership leaders found themselves 2–0 down after 34 minutes with Ally Maclennan and Craig Morrison putting Caberfeidh in a commanding position after dominating the first half.
But Savio Genini scored twice in the final four minutes of the first half to level the game at the break.
Kingussie took the lead 13 minutes from time through Roddy Young before Dylan Borthwick and Ruaraidh Anderson killed the game off to give Kingussie victory.
Kingussie manager John Gibson says after being two goals down after 35 minutes, praised his players for taking control of the game and lifting the first piece of shinty silverware this season.
"The wind was really strong and the game was kind of spoiled by it," he said.
"In the first half we did OK and a had few chances where we should have had a few more goals before they scored.
"At 2–2 with the wind behind us we were confident, but you still have to put the ball in the net.
"We had a lot of play in the second half and eventually we wore them down and got the goals."
Gibson reserved praise for Genini who he says was in the right place at the right time to get Kingussie out of trouble.
"Savio is definitely a big game player for us as he keeps showing us.
"James Falconer didn't score today, but he has come back from injury and looked menacing, particularly in the first half.
"Roddy, Ruaraidh and Dylan also scored and they would have been hard to deal with for anybody's defence."
Kingussie have won every game this season in all competitions, but Gibson is playing down any ambitions of a clean sweep of all four major trophies this season.
"The plan for the rest of the season is to take each game as it comes and win each one.
"We don't look at clean sweeps, grand slams or any of that talk.
"No doubt we will lose a match eventually down the line, but hopefully we keep ticking each match off with a win.
"If everything was going to plan this season, we would be scoring more goals this season and I would be less stressed during matches.
"But this season has been fine so far."
Caberfeidh manager Jodi Gorski knew his team missed a golden opportunity to win the cup, but said windy conditions were a factor in the final.
"We knew in the second half it would be a different game because it was a strong wind," he said.
"We were looking to take a 2–0 advantage into the break, but we conceded stupid goals before half time.
"It was frustrating, we knew if we kept the ball low, the wind would not affect it.
"The second half Kingussie were relentless, but it was a couple of stupid mistakes that cost us goals.
"But I can't fault the boys for effort, it was just one of those days.
"I felt every time we went forward, we could have scored, but the second half we couldn't get it up enough."
Despite making a mistake for Kingussie's first goal, Gorski was full of praise for his goalkeeper Ian McCall who made a string of great saves to keep Caberfeidh in the tie until late on.
"He had a howler for the first goal, but after that he redeemed himself.
"But is frustrating Kingussie scored through our own mistakes and not from cutting through us.
"When you start playing shinty, you are told never hit the ball straight from your goal, always hit it wide and straight out and we didn't do that."
Caberfeidh now prepare to face Kingussie in the Premiership at Castle Leod next Saturday.
Cabers are currently in the relegation zone in ninth place, but Gorski is confident if they play like they today, they will not have to worry about the drop.
"If we play like we did today we don't have to worry about relegation, it should be about looking up the table.
"It is about sticking together, pushing on and if we play the way we know we can we don't have to worry about relegation.
"We know how good a team we are, and other teams know how good we are.
"We are capable of scoring goals, it is unfortunate we are always capable of conceding five.
"It is disappointing, but we can watch the game back and see the mistakes we made and move on."
