Glasgow Mid Argyll win first Ferguson Transport & Shipping Balliemore Cup…

In a mirror image of the 2023 final, it was a gorgeously warm day at Spean as Lochaber Camanachd once again played host to the Ferguson Transport & Shipping Balliemore Cup Final. This year the final brought together Glasgow Mid Argyll, who overcame Inverness 4-0 in their semi-final, and Fort William who defeated 2023 runners up Kilmallie 6-1 to reach the final for the first time since 2019.

The two sides had already met twice in the campaign going into this match, once in the league and once in the Camanachd Cup with Fort William winning by a single goal on both occasions. The scene was set for a great afternoon of shinty as referee Craig Scott thew the ball up to get the game underway. The opening exchanges saw the teams exchange attacks, with Fort William having more of the territory but neither side truly threatening the goals due to a combination of some good blocking and the ball breaking down in the attacking third. A series of hard challenges continued to break up the play and it became clear the two sides were going to offer up a battle rather than a free-flowing match, a welcome fact for the shinty traditionalists.

The first shot on target came on the 30 minute mark and it came the way of Fort William, Sean MacLellan taking a shy into a dangerous area, Victor Smith squeezing through a lovely reverse pass to Lachie Shaw on the edge of the D, however, his low shot was confidently dealt with by Jonathan Oates in the GMA net as he stopped calmly with his left foot and instructed the defender to clear. The rest of the action in the first period could only really be deemed as half-chances and so it was 0-0 going into the break.

Ten minutes into the second half and there was another chance for Fort, this time Lewis Clark battling well on the right wing pushing the ball across to Calum Shepherd, his touch landed at the feet of Archie MacKinnon who scooped the ball over the bar from short range. Six minutes later came the first goal of the game and it came from a GMA corner: Finlay MacMillan floating the ball deep to the back post where Calum McLay had space to let it run across him before firing low across Paul MacKay’s into his bottom left corner.

Glasgow would come close to doubling their lead fifteen minutes later as Finlay MacMillan used his body smartly in the centre line before Cailean MacLeod spun his man as if he wasn’t even there – the 18-year-olds shot looping just wide of the far corner. Fort William pushed for an equaliser in the closing stages of the game, but in truth, they were unable to create any meaningful chances due to stoic defending from the Mid-Argyll backline. It was therefore no surprise that after Craig Scott drew the game to a close there was a Man of the Match Award for full-back Andrew ‘Panda’ Morrison, he was presented the award by Alan MacLeod of Strathglass Shinty Club, you can read more about the man of the match award below.

All that was left to do after that was to present the Ferguson Transport & Shipping Balliemore Cup to Captain and goal scorer Calum McLay – the first GMA player to ever lift the trophy!

Warm congratulations to GMA from everyone at the Association as well as thanks to the team of officials and commiserations to Fort William.

Read the matchday programme here: 2024 Balliemore Final Programme.