Ahead of this weekend’s Tulloch Homes Camanachd Cup Semi-Final we caught up with Lovat Manager, Jamie Matheson.

Jamie, another Tulloch Homes Camanachd Cup Semi-Final, congratulations, how are you feeling ahead of the game against Kyles Athletic?

Thanks a lot, Aarron. I’m feeling good thanks all the usual emotions you’d expect. Excited, a little nervous and just desperate for Saturday to come around and to hear Alec blow the first whistle!

A few injuries in the squad, how has that affected your plans ahead of the weekend?

Yeah, we seem to have a new injury concern most weeks! We’ve been without Lorne (MacKay) and Callum (Cruden) for most of the season but to lose our captain Craig (Mainland) to injury with a minute to go against Kingussie on Saturday is another blow! Every team seems to be the same this season though and we will just keep pushing every week with whoever is fit. We have a good squad of lads and whoever is picked to play on Saturday will give everything they have to win us the game.

Lovat have appeared in 4 of the last 6 finals – that must give you confidence of getting there again this year?

We have a very good record in recent times off making the Tulloch Homes Camanachd Cup Final and for a team from such a small village it’s a great achievement, but we are an ambitious group and we are the first to admit we feel like we could have a few more winners medals to our names! We are confident of winning any game we play but we are also aware that any team that reaches the last 4 of the Camanachd Cup are a quality side so come Saturday we will be as prepared as we possibly can be.

You’ve beaten Kyles away from home in the MOWI Premiership this year already, what did you make of them in that match?

We beat Kyles 3-0 at Tighnabruaich earlier this year, but we travelled down missing 7 first team players and if I remember rightly Kyles were missing around about the same amount off first team lads. So, you can’t look into that game at all. We know Kyles are a quality outfit with some real good players and we will need to be at our best to make sure we are on the right end of the result!

The last two games Lovat have played have been against Oban Camanachd and Kingussie (coincidentally, the other two semi-finalists), who would you rather meet in the final?

Both Oban and Kingussie are very good sides and I think that will be a cracker off a semi-final, but our main focus is Kyles this Saturday and if we find ourselves in the final come the 17th of September we will make sure we are as prepared as physically possible to take on whoever is in front of us.