Oban Camanachd welcome Kinlochshiel this weekend in the MOWI Premiership, in preparation for that match, we caught up with Camanachd Manager, Gareth Evans. There will be an interview with Kinlochshiel Manger Willie MacRae later in the week.
Gareth you take on Kinlochshiel this week in the MOWI Game of the Week. How important do you think this match will be if you want to realise your ambitions this season?
It’s always a big game when you come up against ‘Shiel. Every game is important and our ambition in the league is to finish as high as possible with way results have been going so far this season it’s wide open for a lot of teams.
You’re undefeated at home this season, what is it about playing at Mossfield that makes your guys tic?
We are extremely fortunate to play on the best surface in shinty in my opinion, it suits our style of play ,although undefeated at Mossfield we have dropped silly points with last minute equaliser’s to Newtonmore and Lovat two games we should of won.
I think it’s fair to say that your good start to the season has been built on a solid backline rather than a rampant attack, is that a conscious choice or just how it has worked out so far?
Been a fairly good start but could and should of been so much better, our back line has been our strong point for many seasons with real quality throughout. Although we don’t have a 20+ a season goal scorer the boys upfront are chipping in with decent numbers although you always want more.
What do you make of Shiel, they had a rocky start but are starting to pick up some wins?
‘Shiel as we all know made a sticky start to the season but seem to to hitting a good run of form that was always going to happen so as always we are expecting a full blooded physical game this Saturday and our performance levels need to go up but one I know our boys are relishing.
Finally, on Saturday you steered Camanachd to the Glasgow Celtic Society Challenge Cup Final, it’s been 4 years since the club last lifted the trophy, how important will that day be in making your season a success?
Winning the Celtic Society cup is one of our targets that we pointed to in pre-season, it’ll be all on the day and GMA are always a tough proposition at home, if we play to our strengths we will give ourselves a opportunity to win and that in turn gives the team confidence to go on and hopefully win more silverware this season.