Muirtown Primary School show pride to compete in MacKay Cup final
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Muirtown Primary School reaching the final of the MacKay Cup shows how much shinty is growing in Inverness according to their coaches Matthew Maciver and Finlay MacRae.
The Inverness primary school put in a creditable performance against Newtonmore in the final, in what was the first match of MacTavish Cup finals day on Saturday.
Despite losing 9–0 in the final, the score was only 2–0 at half time with Muirtown causing problems in the Newtonmore defence, coming close to scoring on a number of occasions.
MacRae says for an Inverness school to reach the final shows how much the game is getting stronger in the city.
“It was a terrific achievement as a lot of the players had not picked up a stick in a few years until this term due to Covid,” he said.
“The players had won a lot of games to get to the final.
“On the day, Newtonmore were the better team, but it was a great experience for them to play at Bught Park.”
Muirtown had won matches as far afield as Oban and Balmacara to reach the final.
Maciver says Inverness Shinty Academy works with a number of schools in the city to introduce kids to the sport and Muirtown reaching the final shows how well the system is working.
“We bring the kids to the academy to play shinty every Saturday, in the hope of feeding them into the under-14, under-17 and senior structure.
“It is a great pathway to get kids into the sport.”