COLGLEN went through to the semi-final of the Celtic Cup after winning their first local derby of the season against Bute in the Clachan of Glendaruel on Saturday, April 25.
Despite residing in the National Division, the islanders looked sharper right at the start and the ColGlen players had to put an early shift in to keep the scores level; however, soon the momentum swung the other way. A long ball cleared wide found Neily McNaughton, who hit a well-struck shot that found its way past Bute goalie big Paddy Queen to put the Glen one up.
20 minutes later, Sam Bulloch managed to double the home team’s advantage as he hit low and hard on target. Bute then suffered a further setback as Queen received a nasty arm injury and was forced off, to be replaced between the sticks by Thomas Morrison. Despite ColGlen putting the squeeze on, they were unable to capitalise before the interval, and Bute got themselves right back into the game immediately after half-time. Some quick-fire passes following the restart resulted in Robert Lowrie bagging a neat goal that caught the Glen backs off guard.
However, the Glen responded quickly when Cally McNaughton scored a tidy goal only a minute later.
The game had been end-to-end up until this point; however, ColGlen controlled the back-and-forth nature of the game better, retaining more possession. Chris Blair was subbed on for Marcus Keith and wasted little time getting onto the scoresheet himself.
As James Hamilton came on for Bulloch, the Glen sustained the pressure on the Bute defence and built up a series of meaningful attacks before Jamie MacVicar moved up from his wing to score in the 80th minute.
Despite the result being beyond doubt in the latter stages, Bute kept working hard and were rewarded when Josh Cowan scored in the final minute.
Although there was some confusion as to whether the ball had gone in or hit the outside of the net, eagle-eyed referee Alec MacVicar was well placed and had seen the ball cross the line.
As the game concluded, the ColGlen management would no doubt have been satisfied with their team’s performance, especially having scored five goals with as many scorers, and goals have been hard to come by in the league campaign so far.
In what was a solid team effort from the Glen, Somharle Fraser, who is sponsored by Trail Architects, was picked out as man of the match after his performance in midfield.
ColGlen were very grateful to the Colintraive (Hotel), who sponsored the match.
It’s another home fixture at the Clachan for ColGlen this Saturday, May 2, as they take on shinty giants Kingussie in the Mowi Premiership, whilst Bute face Inveraray in the first round of the Camanachd Cup.
