Shinty - Newtonmore win Camanachd Cup as they hold off Kingussie to lift trophy in Inverness
Camanachd Cup Final
Kingussie 2
Newtonmore 3
NEWTONMORE celebrated winning the Camanachd Cup as they held off Kingussie in a dramatic final in Inverness.
A packed crowd at Bught Park watched the all Badenoch clash as Newtonmore lifted the trophy for the 35th time and end Kingussie’s chances of winning the trophy for the fourth year in a row.
Newtonmore stormed into a 3-0 lead with Iain Robinson scoring the opener after 17 minutes with a powerful low drive from 20-yards out.
He doubled their advantage four minutes into the second half with another powerful low drive from 20-yards out.
Joe Coyle made it 3-0 in the 63rd minute when his pace proved too much for the Kingussie defence to cope with before he fired home from close range.
Kingussie pulled one back with 20 minutes remaining when Ryan Borthwick played a neat set-piece with Savio Genini which fooled the Newtonmore defence and he managed to fire home from close range.
With a minute remaining in normal time, Borthwick found the net again when he played another set-piece with Dylan Borthwick to fire home from close range to give them hope in injury time.
But Newtonmore held on for victory to lift the trophy for the first time since 2019 to ecstatic scenes from their supporters.
Manager Peter Ross says his team deserved to win the cup in what was an excellent performance.
He said: “We’re ecstatic, it means everything to us and the village. Right from when I took this job the village was right behind me and I thank them all very much for that.”
Despite taking a commanding three goal lead after 63 minutes, Ross felt his team could have been further in front at that point.
He said: “I thought that we should have been four or five up. Saying that, Kenny Ross pulled off a lot of great saves in the first half. I thought that we were the better team today.
“Joe Coyle and Matthew Sloss, what talents, they tore Kingussie apart. When they were taken off the ball, they didn’t react, they played. We came to play shinty, we got it right and we’re going home with the cup.”
Ross says the Camanachd Cup is the biggest prize in shinty and is proud that it will be in the trophy cabinet at Newtonmore.
He said: “I have great faith in my players and I always have. This the main one, they may have won three cups, but this is the one that they want and we have got it.
“This is the biggest prize to a Newtonmore guy, the Scottish Cup.”