IN their final match of the 2019 Mowi Premiership season, champions Kingussie lost 1-0 to Kyles Athletic away at Tighnabruaich. The Badenoch side would lift the Premiership trophy after the match regardless, with the title already in the bag going into this one.
On the other hand, for Kyles Athletic, and for their manager Dunky Kerr, the victory over the champions gave his side a tantalising taste of what might have been.
“Congratulations have to go to Kingussie,” he said, “they have won the most points over the season and have deservedly come out on top. Our problem was that early cancellations meant we were slow to get points on the board and could not exert pressure on Kingussie when the league was still in the balance.
“At this late stage we still have two games left to play and can be runners up. We came up slightly short but it lays down a good marker for the future – and considering we have had to replace some big players like Grant Irvine and Cammy Keith this year it’s a positive finish to our season.”
Saturday’s game was like all three previous encounters between the sides this season: a tight affair, with the difference between them this time being down to an early Kyles’ goal that had more than a slice of good fortune to it.
With both teams struggling to find any fluency on the heavy surface, a high ball in from the wing from Kyles’ Ross MacRae saw front man Colin MacDonald challenge full-back Robert Mabon for aerial possession. The ball glancing off the Kingussie man’s stick past keeper Rory MacGregor for a disappointing own goal.
Kingussie immediately picked themselves up and fought hard to for the equaliser, but a combination of the sticky surface plus the absence of the experienced James Hutchison and Fraser Munro in the centre, meant they struggled to provide enough in the way of quality ball.
The result was that Kyles’ keeper John Whyte had little to do throughout the course of the 90 minutes, except to deal with a few routine through balls which he stopped without being put under serious pressure. On the few occasions the north side did shoot, the ball either flew high over the bar or it was fired wide.
If the Kyles defence was on top at their end of the field, the same could equally be said of the Kingussie backline, where after his initial misfortune, skipper Mabon never put another foot wrong.
Keeper Rory MacGregor, however, did have to play his part in keeping his side competitive with tidy second half saves from Kyles’ Roddy MacDonald and Robbie MacLeod. That apart, there was little prospect of either side breaking the defensive deadlock and, in the absence of the midfield cover, Kingussie were unable to risk pushing up centre Lee Bain to full-forward to explore whether this might have created more scoring opportunities for Roddy Young and Ruaraidh Anderson.
In the event, it was not to be and Kyles comfortably secured their second home victory of the season against Kingussie.
Not that the visitors were down for long because shortly after the whistle of referee Des McNulty had brought matters to a conclusion, their captain Mabon stepped up to take possession of the Premiership trophy from Alistair Geddes, manager of Mowi’ s Fish Farm on Colonsay.
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