Shinty: Lochaber 1-5 Newtonmore - Newtonmore add cup to silver haul

You would think that, with a winning margin of 5-1, champions Newtonmore were dishing out lessons aplenty to lower league Lochaber in Saturday’s Co Operative MacTavish Cup final in Inverness.

Scorers: Lochaber - Nicholson (60); Newtonmore - MacKintosh (1), Sellar (14, 51), MacKenzie (70), MacRae (89)

Two goals apiece from teenage revelation Chris Sellar and captain John MacKenzie plus a single strike from Glen MacKintosh is certainly a haul of goals.

But, in reality, the lessons Newtonmore taught Lochaber amounted to only two.

They just happened to be two very important ones when it comes to winning trophies.

Firstly, scoring goals when the chances present themselves is vital. Newtonmore probably had five chances in the whole game. Their 100 per cent conversion rate was, therefore, impressive.

Indeed, the first goal – after only one minute – was not really a gilt-edged opportunity but rather an opening fashioned by a master craftsman.

Glen MacKintosh finished top of Shinty’s goal charts last term and, although he ended up bloodied with a head wound in this encounter, is a man at the top of his form.

He took Blair MacKenzie’s corner in his stride at the front post before drilling the ball into the net from a tight angle to make it 1-0.

Immediately, it had Lochaber wondering whether they could answer the questions the champions were going to ask.

Contrast that to Lochaber’s endeavours in front of goal and the differences between the two sides begin to emerge.

Stuart Callison caused Newtonmore’s defence problems in the first half but when no one could get on the end of a spill he created, it was telling.

Had it been at the other end, Newtonmore’s players would have been propelling each other at the ball. Anything just to get it over the white line.

Then, with the scores at 2-0 to ’More and with half-time approaching, Zander Ferguson had a one-on-one with Michael Ritchie in the Newtonmore goal but he cracked his shot wide in probably the key moment in the whole game for Lochaber.

Had they converted, it would have been 2-1 at half time and game on.

It wasn’t and Newtonmore then went 3-0 up in the second period and the trophy began to exert an almost magnetic pull towards Badenoch.

The second small but significant lesson for Lochaber was one of knowledge, or learned experience.

Newtonmore have won enough big games now to know that you don’t concede early in a final. Okay, sometimes fate inks it mark and there is little can be done to alter its course.

Still, it is doubtful whether Newtonmore would have afforded MacKintosh the room they did to hurt them after only a minute.

“It was a great start for us, a terrible one for them,” admitted a smiling Newtonmore captain John MacKenzie afterwards.

Similarly, Lochaber’s defenders seemed to waste the opportunity to clear the ball before 19 year old Sellar managed to find himself through on goal for number two in only 17 minutes.

Weave those two themes together and Lochaber were complicit in building the mountain they had to scale, thereafter.

That said, these are all Lochaber’s failing exposed. There was plenty good and lots to suggest they will take this as one dark mark on an upward trajectory.

Sean Nicolson hit a fine strike for Lochaber in 58 minutes to make it 3-1 and MacKenzie’s two late goals from close range made the score more comfortable for Newtonmore than it was.

That was acknowledged by ’More boss Norman MacArthur, who was unstinting in his admiration for the vanquished.

“It wasn’t really 5-1 but we’ll take it. We’re developing a winning mentality now.”

There’s the rub. Simple. Newtonmore are getting good at winning.