This weekend high-flying Caberfeidh travel to Portree to face Skye in the Tulloch Homes Camanachd Cup 2nd Round. To preview the game, we sat down with Caberfeidh Head Coach, Garry Reid. You can read an interview from Skye Manager Kenny MacLeod here.

Garry, firstly, what has it been like so far being a club Manager again after so long with the Scottish National Team?

The last International took place in 2019, so the past few years have been the longest period that I have been out of shinty, so the best thing is being around shinty people again and being involved. The club committee, coaching team and the players have been absolutely terrific to work with, and I have enjoyed being part of the everyday life of a club again.

You welcome Skye this week in the Tulloch Homes Camanachd Cup, what kind of test are you expecting from them?

Skye are good team with a strong squad of players and they will be playing with a lot of confidence having just reached the MacTavish final. At their home pitch they will start as favourites to go through, so we know we are in for a tough challenge if we want to progress in the cup.

Craig Morrison is on 19 goals for the season, how important is he and his goals to what you are trying to achieve this season?

He is extremely important, he is in charge of the fine list and is very diligent in his collection of any misdemeanours! Obviously his goals are important as well, but as Craig would be the first to say, shinty is the ultimate team game and nowadays you don’t just need a team but a squad of players who will all play their part over the course of the season.

Cabers scored 9 goals last weekend, what does that do for confidence coming into this big game?

The pleasing thing was to put in a performance when we were under pressure, we had a tough run of four straight defeats so we needed to break that cycle and the added bonus was the manner that we played. Going a goal down after 30 seconds against GMA could have knocked the stuffing out of us, but we came back strongly and that requires character and ability which the players have in abundance..

Outside of the Badenoch teams, Skye have the joint best defence in the MOWI Premiership, is that something that worries you ahead of the trip to Portree?

A few of the Skye players train with us, and we get to see their quality first hand every week, so we know that we need to work out a way of breaking down their defence, but we also need to get the better of their centre line which is strong and stop their forwards who have good movement and a bit of pace about them. Skye are a good team and we will have to be at the top of our game if we want to get the win.

Finally, it’s been a bit of an up and down season in terms of results, but Cabers probably wouldn’t have dreamt of being 3^rd at this stage in the season, just how proud are you of the job you’ve done so far?

We need to be more consistent and we want to be winners, so we are still on that journey and it is not quite the time to reflect on where we are, as there is still a way to go. It is not really about the job that I have done, as everything I do doesn’t really matter if you don’t have the application and commitment of the players, and they have been a pleasure to work with. I am also surrounded by a support team that make my role easy, our physical trainer Gavin has been superb, Alison is getting the right care to our injured players and assistant coaches Kevin and Denzil are generally just keeping me right!