Lovat are up for Camanachd Cup
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Martin Mainland says he is determined to experience that Camanachd Cup winning feeling again with Lovat as they start their campaign in the second round against Caberfeidh in Kiltarlity on Saturday.
The vice-captain was part of the Lovat team which won the Camanachd Cup back in 2015 when they beat Kyles Athletic 2-1 at Oban.
Since then, Lovat have gone on to reach four finals, but lost on each occasion in 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022.
Mainland says the Camanachd Cup is always a priority for Lovat and they will be looking to give themselves a chance of winning the trophy for only the third time in their history.
Recalling winning the Camanachd Cup in 2015, he said: “That was the biggest day that I have had in shinty. The cup competitions and specifically the Camanachd Cup you want to win it. It is the biggest trophy in shinty so we might as well go for the big one.
“It is the sort of tournament a squad like ours is more designed towards. Just because we don’t have the squad depth other squads have. We are not a big shinty club with a big pool of players. We will look to try and target silverware in the cup competitions due to the squad of players we have available.”
Lovat are second in the Premiership, but did suffer defeat last weekend with a 1-0 loss at home to Kinlochshiel at Balgate last week.
They take on a Caberfeidh team who have the best strikeforce in the game in Kevin Bartlett and Craig Morrison. But Mainland says there is more to Caberfeidh than those two players.
“Caberfeidh have good squad depth and quality through the entire team. You just can’t look at two players as that would be a drastic oversight if we did that. We know that they have the targetmen in Craig and Kevin and no doubt they have quality in the back with Blair Morrison, but you can’t take anything for granted.”
Elsewhere in the Camanachd Cup Northern Section, Beauly take on Kinlochshiel, Fort William face Inverness and Skye take on Glenurquhart. In the Southern Section, Kingussie face Bute, Inveraray face Glasgow Mid Argyll, Lochaber take on Kyles Athletic and Oban Camanachd take on Newtonmore.
