Fort William’s wonderful start to the season continued but it took a tenacious team effort to win 1-0 at Kinlochshiel in their WM Donald MacTavish Cup quarter-final tie.
Shiel dominated the early pressure but fell behind three minutes before the break when Victor Smith’s perfectly weighted pass teed up substitute Alexander MacMillan who smashed the ball home.
The second half was more even with Shiel finishing strongly.
Fort co-manager Alan Knox said his side owed much to their defence.
He said: “We were up against it at times and defenders Alexander Cameron, Ali MacRae, Johnny Forster and Arran Stephen deserve credit.
“Jack Fraser’s a steady influence in midfield and his hitting gets us up-field.”
Co-manager Neil Robertson agreed, saying: “We’ve trained hard to make the step up. We weren’t great today, and it was scrappy at times.
“Jack Fraser fought hard while Alexander Cameron has been outstanding in defence this year.
“Whether against Kingussie, Newtonmore or whoever, he’s a clever player and he doesn’t get enough credit but he’s one of the first names on our team sheet.”
Impressive full centre Jack Fraser added: “’Shiel are a strong, physical side and that probably doesn’t suit us. When you look at their side, you might think they’d bulldoze us but we’re strong, young and fast and we held our own.”
Young hits hat-trick for Kings
Holders Kingussie beat Skye 5-1 to reach Tuesday’s semi-final draw. Roddy Young and Dan MacDonald exchanged goals within the opening three minutes before Young completed a first half hat-trick.
Ryan Borthwick and the excellent Thomas Borthwick also scored before half-time.
Liam Borthwick returned from the bench following injury and manager Iain Borthwick said: “We played really well in the first half and maybe could have scored more but we seemed to go through the motions after that.”
Lochaber led Kilmallie 2-0 through Findlay MacDonald and Shaun Nicolson late in the first half but Innes Blackhall and Seumas Macfarlane tied this derby with 11 minutes remaining. Stuart Callison scored the winner a minute from time.
Marc MacLachlan’s first half double helped Lovat win 3-1 at Glenurquhart.
Charlie MacLeod countered before Lewis Tawse added a third on the hour.
Lovat manager Iain Nicolson said: “Despite all the rain, I was really impressed with the condition of the pitch, and groundsman Billy MacLeod and his team did a great job, allowing for a decent game in wet conditions.
“I was pleased with our forward play but we were a bit disjointed at times and defensively, we gave Glen too many opportunities so there’s still work to be done.
“I was impressed with the young Glen team who made it difficult and caused us problems.”
Kyles Athletic scored four times within the first 17 minutes as they beat Col Glen 5-0 in their Scottish Sea Farms Glasgow Celtic Society Challenge Cup quarter-final tie.
Roan MacVicar’s brace came either side of James Pringle’s double with Luke Thornton adding a fifth late in the first half.
Pringle’s second was the pick of the bunch, a full volley into the top corner of the goal past a helpless keeper.
It was a sixth strike in seven games for the former Skye player, who said: “We wanted to hit them hard early on and it went exactly as planned.
“We scored some really good goals making what could’ve been a long slog on a soft pitch a bit easier.”
Glasgow Mid Argyll beat Bute 4-1. Calum McLay netted twice, either side of Cailean MacLeod’s goal, all within the opening eight minutes. Ryan Craig pulled one back 20 minutes from time before Logan Adam made it 4-1 a couple of minutes after.
Ewan Donnan struck the opener on the stroke of half-time as Inveraray won 5-0 at Oban Celtic. Fraser Watt added a brace and Neil Campbell and Ruaraidh Graham the others.
In Mowi Premiership’s only match, goals in the last half-hour from Cameron McNiven and Iain Robinson earned Newtonmore’s 2-0 win against Beauly.
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