Strathspey and Badenoch Herald
31 July, 2010
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By Dave Fallows
Published:  02 September, 2009

KINGUSSIE were left to curse the bad weather after going down to an extra time defeat against Kyles Athletic in their re-arranged Camanachd Cup semi-final on Saturday.

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Kings' boss Jimmy Gow said he feared that the game could come back to bite his side after they had been leading two weeks earlier at Ballachulish by 4-1 with just 23 minutes to go and were certainties to make the final.

A disappointed Gow said: "I feel that the previous game went on long enough and the result should have stood. The match was played in the same conditions throughout.

"The fact is that it should never have started in the first place.

"It is a real sickener, but at the back of my mind I feared that the re-arranged fixture could come back and bite us. Maybe Kyles' name is on the Camanachd Cup this year."

Gow said that there was not much in the game which went into extra time after forward Kevin Thain had thrown the Kings a lifeline with a late leveller to make it 3-3 in normal time.

The Kingussie coach said: "There was not much in the game, and it could have gone either way. Once we went into extra time it was always going to be the advantage to whichever team scored first."

It's the second weekend in succession that the Badenoch giants have been on the wrong end of a 4-3 scorelines after going down to Inveraray in the Macaulay Cup Final – to lose their long winning streak.

The Kings this time had to make the shorter journey to Spean Bridge to take up cudgels once again against Kyles Athletic.

On a damp, but playable, pitch, Kyles staked the first claim to a final place through Tom Whyte in the 14th minute.

However, Thain was on hand to equalise in the 20th minute to leave the scores level at the turn.

Ronald Ross fired Kingussie into the lead on the hour mark, and the Badenoch side certainly had chances to go further in front in the quarter hour that followed.

Kingussie's Ian Borthwick gets the better of Kyles' Robbie Macleod during their Camanachd Cup semi-final clash at Spean Bridge on Saturday.

But it was the pace of Duncan Kerr that told in the end as he outpaced his marker to fire home the equaliser in 80 minutes.

He then struck again seven minutes later to give Kyles a 3-2 lead.

In the final minute, Thain was the Kingussie hero when he nailed the equaliser to take the match into extra time.

With the age of some of the Kingussie stalwarts beginning to show, it was Kerr who popped up to hit what proved to be the winner.

They could have made it 5-3 minutes later when awarded a penalty, which Kerr fired wide, though not before Kingussie's James Hutchison was sent off for an exchange of words with goal judge Brian Davis.

Beaten in the MacTavish, The Macaulay and now the Camanachd cups, the Kings' only hope of rescuing something from the season lies in the league.

Winning both their games in hand would see them on the same mark as neighbours, Newtonmore, with a goal difference of six to make up in the two matches.

They face a stiff first test with a trip to Fort William this Saturday.

Gow said that his team would be ready for the big clash despite the disappointment of the last two games in the cup. "We've got eight games left to play and we will be battling all the way in the league.

"We'll certainly be giving it our best shot."



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