Lovat hitman Greg Matheson is convinced his team’s bizarre stop-start season can end in glory when they face Kinlochshiel in Saturday’s Tulloch Homes Camanachd Cup Final at Oban.
The 28 year old plumber, the most prolific goalscorer still playing first team senior shinty, is a key man in the Kiltarlity club’s hopes of a third Camanachd triumph, to follow those in 1936 and 2015.
He said: “People may not realise that Lovat have played only two league games all season. Every other fixture has been a cup tie, so each match has been a pressure sudden-death environment.
“Most clubs have been hit to some extent by Covid-19 postponements, but we happen to have been particularly affected.
“The lack of a run of league games, and so many weekends off, stopped us getting the consistency we’d aimed for but credit to the lads for rising to the challenge as far as the Camanachd Cup is concerned.
“We’re under no illusions about how good and strong Kinlochshiel are but our approach has been that we back ourselves against anyone and that’s the spirit we’ll take on to Mossfield Park.”
Internationalist Matheson, who has been playing for the first team since he was 14, admits: “It’ll be an unusual final as the ‘big name’ teams will be missing. We knocked out Oban in the quarter final and Newtonmore’s conquerors Kingussie in the semi final. Kinlochshiel took care of Kyles Athletic.
“So it gives a special spice to this game and with it being Shiel’s first Camanachd final, they’ll bring a big Wester Ross support.
“We beat them 3-2 in the Macaulay Cup at Drumnadrochit but they had a couple missing. They’ve plenty of internationalists but we’ve got our own fine players, such as Fraser Heath who was brilliant against Kingussie.”
This is Greg’s fourth final, winning in 2015 and losing to Newtonmore in 2017 and 2018, in a spell where Lovat have their finest side in decades. “The core of our team grew up together and the average age is 28, with several younger and several older balancing things out”, he explained.
“That togetherness has helped us through this strange stop-start season and benefited us when we were virtually written off before the Kingussie tie.
“Martin Mainland’s been out all season with a broken hand, Lorne MacKay is suspended while Scott Mackenzie’s semi-final break rules him out, so it’s a great pity these lads miss out. But we have players who can come in and do the job.”
Greg admits the two-week gap between semi final and final, instead of the usual four to six weeks, offers less time to deliver a fitness plan. “Instead, we’re focusing on as much stickwork as possible”, he stressed.
“Shiel will be really up for their debut on the game’s biggest occasion but we’ve conquered league inactivity to give ourselves another opportunity and we’re out to make the most of it.”