This week will mark the conclusion of the cottages.com MacTavish Cup 1st Round as Caberfeidh welcome Kinlochshiel in a rerun of the abandoned fixture from a fortnight ago. The winner will secure a date with holders Kingussie in the quarter finals on 20th April.  We caught up with Kinlochshiel’s top goal scorer John MacRae to preview this fixture.

John, a return to Castle Leod this Saturday to take on Cabers in the cottages.com MacTavish Cup, how have preparations gone for the game so far?
All good yeah. Hopefully have a full team as having the last couple of weeks off have helped with that.

What do you make of Cabers as a side – where can they get at you?
Cabers are always a strong team and we always have a good battle against them, but they are strong all over so will need to be top of our game if we are to come away with a win.

On a personal note, you missed a chunk of last season due to injury, how are you feeling now you’re back in the team and scoring goals again?
Yeah it’s great to be back you don’t realise how much you will miss shinty till it’s taken from you.  I was a bit worried I would struggle to come back last year when I was still recovering but been feeling good this year and hopefully can get a good number of goals and assists to help the team push on this season.

 

There’s been an element of misfortune for Kinlochshiel by all accounts this year, perhaps unlucky not to get a draw on the opening day; conceding last minute against Kyles and then again against Lochaber – is this just bad luck?
Yeah a bit of bad luck but we need to get a bit more grit about us. You make your own luck.  We have maybe just been a bit complacent in the ends of games which we need to put right.

The quarter-final draw took place on Friday and paired you up with holders Kingussie, some would say that’s not much of a prize for winning on Saturday, what do you make of the draw?

We want to be winning trophies so we need to beating the better teams like Cabers and Kingussie if that is to happen.