Newtonmore starlet makes his first team debut and impresses
There was one big positive takeaway for Newtonmore co-boss Norman MacArthur after his side was unable to complete their second half comeback in the cottages.com MacTavish Cup.
Young star Joe Coyle made his first ever appearance for the Blue and Whites’ first at the weekend in the 4-3 reverse to lower league Newtonmore.
MacArthur was so impressed that after the loss he said that the S3 Kingussie High School pupil would be joining the first team squad.
The youngster just made his second team bow at the start of the season but has already proved to be a deadly marksman in front of goal at that level.
The Eilan firsts did suffer another big blow in the defeat with talisman Rory Kennedy fracturing his arm and now expected to be sidelined for a lengthy spell.
MacArthur was left to lament what night have been with rivals Kingussie reaching the final which will be staged at Newtonmore’s home ground.
“We also had too many good guys out,” he said.
“We need our full squad for these games, and we are a million miles away from that at the moment and the injury to Rory Kennedy on Saturday just makes that worse.
“Rory has a fracture on his arm and had a cast from his shoulder to his wrist afterwards. It was a really bad challenge, and the player concerned will get a two-game ban.
“That’s the same as Steven (Macdonald) got for swearing when all he was doing was alerting the referee that a teammate had a head injury.
“Compare that with Rory, who could now be off his work for a couple of months. That can’t be right, and it is something that needs to be looked at.
“We threw Joe Coyle on at half-time and he was fantastic. On that performance, Joe will be with the first team from now on.
“Fair play to Fort William and I thought their full back Johnny Forster had a very good game.
“We now have a big game against Oban Camanachd on Saturday and we all need to step up.”