Lovat's Cruden hopes Ferguson is free for cup clash
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LOVAT midfielder Ryan Ferguson’s anxiety levels will be heightened ahead of today’s Lovat Cup match at Beauly as he gets ready to help his team-mates retain the trophy they won exactly 12 months ago.
Butterflies are nothing new for the powerful wing-centre but this year the pre-match nerves are jangling stronger than ever, as he also prepares to become a dad for the first time. Ferugson’s partner Emily is due to give birth at any moment and will be overdue come today’s 1pm throw-up.
Ferguson’s team-mate Calum Cruden said: "I know Ryan would love to be with the squad for the match but we shall just have to wait and see. The baby is obviously a huge event for them both and for once shinty has to take a back seat.
"To get him in the team would be terrific but we are also well prepared and ready whatever happens."
Meanwhile, Lovat manager Allan MacRae seeks his third success in four years in the annual joust, first introduced in 1904 and always one of the most passionately contested matches in the sport. Ahead of the clash Lovat appear to hold most of the aces with their Premiership experience and crucially, go into the match as holders and under the rules need just a draw to retain the trophy.
But they do not have their troubles to seek with Ferguson a doubt and Drew Howie struggling for fitness. They are also curtailed by serious injury to two influential players — Craig Mainland is out with a leg injury sustained at football while Graeme MacMillan is recovering from a broken leg..
Lovat’s record at Braeview in recent times has not been outstanding, with a draw in 2011 their best effort in the last decade. Home advantage might give Beauly the edge tomorrow but team manager Roger Cormack predicts a close encounter.
"There is rarely very much between the sides in the Lovat Cup. It often comes down to who wants it most on the day — we had that desire in 2013 and they responded last year," he said.
Cormack, a veteran of over 25 Lovat Cups as a player, leads from the dug-out for the first time, although he shared the managerial duties with Stephen MacLean for a number of seasons.
He has chosen his starting 12 but will not be revealing his line-up until closer to Friday’s throw-up time.
A number of Beauly players are set to make their Lovat Cup debut in the Braeview cauldron, where the crowd is expected to be in the region of 1500.
Teenagers Josh Grant and Ewan Campbell will almost certainly feature, with Grant showing real promise as a keeper while Campbell, a native Gaelic speaker from Benbecula, has also shown up well in his first season in senior ranks. He will almost certainly become the first Hebridean to feature in a Lovat Cup.
Beauly will be led by Conor Cormack, who gained his second Scotland cap in October, and last season’s top scorer David Maclean, who will probably lead the attack alongside the experienced Sean Stewart. Barrie MacDonald, the last Beauly captain to hold the trophy aloft, was deployed in a deeper role in 2014 but retained a scoring threat bursting forward from his midfield berth.
