Third successive draw for Lovat
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THE Orion Premiership has a familiar look to it after Saturday’s results which ended with Kyles Athletic on top leading the reigning champions Newtonmore by a point.
Lovat remain unbeaten after the opening three matches, recording their third draw in succession at Inveraray, despite the absence of a trio of key players.
In a real end-to-end battle at the Winterton, the Kiltarlity side came within seconds of taking both points against the Royal Burgh outfit, but a last gasp equaliser from David Robertson denied manager Allan MacRae and his Lovat team.
Lovat trailed to a Chris Crawford’s strike in the 42nd minute, but Ryan Ferguson’s first goal of the season drew the visitors level.
With just two minutes remaining, Greg Matheson stole in to give Lovat the lead and the two points looked to be heading north to Balgate.
Inveraray, however, who were down to 11 men after the 71st minute dismissal of Allan MacDonald, mounted a last ditch effort to maintain their unbeaten start to the campaign and forced a corner. With the Lovat defence caught napping, Robertson sneaked in at the back post to stroke the ball beyond Stuart MacDonald.
While Lovat continue their solid if unspectacular start to the season, Glenurquhart have slipped to the bottom of the table after their third straight defeat.
The Glen looked to be on course for their first point of the season, but a last minute goal from Kinlochshiel’s Keith MacRae edged the Wester Ross side home by way of a 2-1 victory.
The Glen looked to be good value for their first half lead with Neale Reid scoring on the cusp of half-time, but ‘Shiel responded strongly after the interval and with 15 minutes remaining Gordie MacDonald struck to level the scores.
At that point both teams would have accepted a share of the points as a fair outcome, yet Kinlochshiel found the strength to score the winner in the dying seconds.
Oban Camanachd’s 3-1 win at home to Kingussie was the shock result of the day with Gus Campbell’s promoted side picking up their first points since returning to the top league.
Fort William managers Victor Smith and Adam Robertson will be disappointed with their side’s showing at Tighnabruaich where they slumped to 4-0 defeat at the hands of Kyles.
Roddy MacDonald struck twice, before late goals from Thom Whyte and Dunkie Kerr secured the points that see Kyles lead the table by a point from Newtonmore ahead of the two teams clashing on Saturday.
Newtonmore had Danny MacRae in top form, scoring four times in the 5-1 rout of Lochaber. The Badenoch side finished strongly, scoring three times in the final 15 minutes.
In North Division One, Saturday’s most eye-catching result was Inverness’ 4-2 victory over Strathglass.
The city club went into the game off the back off two heavy defeats that had seen them concede 14 goals, but they raced to a 4-0 lead with barely an hour on the clock, James Cameron scoring all four goals.
Strathglass mounted a late recovery, but a Robert Geddes double was too little, too late for them.
Beauly carved out a precious two points as they edged out Caberfeidh 3-2 at Castle Leod.
Ross Forbes opened for the Greens in the 41st minute, but Beauly were unable to take that advantage into the break with Craig Morrison levelling on the stroke of half-time.
Two minutes after the restart, Blair Morrison gave the home side the lead. Beauly, however, came back strongly with goals by Barrie MacDonald and Marc MacLachlan to ease them up the table into second place.
Kilmallie are top and maintained their 100 per cent record courtesy of a 3-1 triumph at the expense of Skye.
Meanwhile, Skye’s reserve side shocked Newtonmore in North Division Two after recording a 3-2 win, while the Aird derby between Beauly and Lovat ended in a 1-1 stalemate.
