Caithness Amateur Sevens Football League - Week 17

Submitted by Ian Nicol

23rd January 2002

Week 17 of the RMC sponsored league and the headlines are:

Ashes are crowned as new RMC sevens champions!
Ashes secured their first trophy last night with a 4-1 win over a fighting Castletown side.
Castletown indeed had the better of the first half and went a goal up after a defensive mix up left Stuart MacKenzie free and he nodded home from a free kick.

MacKenzie who was earlier booked for tripping blotted his copybook when he went over the top of the ball in a challenge on Andrew Lannon and collected his second yellow and promptly saw red.

Ashes never looked back from this and took control in the second half. 2 excellent strikes from man of the match Terry Mackay settled Ashes nerves and he then turned supplier when his pin point cross was nodded home by Chris Dunnett. Dunnett went on to finish the scoring as Ashes won it in some style. Graham Calder was also yellow carded for Castletown for tripping.

MacKenzie is suspended from his sides last match and leaves the door open for Chris Dunnett to win the top goal scoring trophy. Earlier Crazy Gang went on a goal scoring spree and Top Joes were the fall guys.

Andrew Taylor and Joe Christie both hit 2 as the Gang hit 4 without reply in the first half. 2 further goals by Roddy farmer and 1 apiece for Ian Brands and Rory Patterson saw them hit 8 before Mark MacKay got a consolation for Top Joes. Workshops and John O'Groats both knew only a win would see them keep pressure on Ashes.

Groats where the better team in the first half and only some outstanding goalkeeping by Robbie Powell kept Workshops in the hunt. In the second half the first goal would be all important and it fell to Groats. Sean Henstridge found some space in the box and fired home. Further goals for Stuart Sinclair and Mark Robertson who netted the goal of the evening after a mazy run beating 4 players before firing home, where the icing on the cake as Groats then waited to see the outcome of the Ashes match.

Thistle and Acks served up a thriller as this game definitely did not have an "end of season" feel about it. Both sides were superbly marshalled and chances were few and far between. Acks broke the deadlock when Ian Grant netted after a clever move. When James MacKay made it 2 it was all over. Thistle battled manfully but Moar in goals for Acks was up to the task. Stuart Robertson of Acks was yellow carded for deliberate handball.

Pentland hit 5 in the last match this evening as Co-op continued to struggle. Despy MacKay bagged himself a fine hat trick in a man of the match performance. John Maclean also hit a brace in a one sided affair. Co-op as usual never gave up and Ronnie Campbell (Jnr) hit a consolation for them.

Results

Top Joes 1 Crazy Gang 8
Thistle 0 Acks 2
Workshops 0 JOG 3
Castletown 1 Ashes 4
Co-op 1 Pentland 5

Top Scorers

It's tight at the top as Stuart MacKenzie is banned from his last match and
leaves the door open for Chris Dunnett to win the Golden Boot award.

Stuart MacKenzie (Castletown) 25
Chris Dunnett (Ashes) 23
Sean Henstridge (JOG) 18
Andrew Taylor (Crazy Gang) 18
Terry Cannop (Thistle) 16
Dougie MacKay (Workshops) 16

Next weeks fixtures

6 o'clock kick off

Co-op v Ashes

7 o'clock kick off

Top Joes v Acks
Pentland v Workshops

8 o'clock kick off

JOG v Thistle
Crazy Gang v Castletown

Castletown have pulled out of the Ormlie Motors sponsored cup on Saturday 9th February as they are unable to field a team due to work commitments. Co-op were drawn from the group of four to replace them.

RMC have already intimated that they are willing to continue the sponsorship
of the Caithness Amateur Sevens Football League for next season.
Committee member Andrew Taylor was delighted with the news. "The continued
sponsorship of RMC is good news for our league. We are going from strength to strength and this can only be good for the continued success of the Caithness Sevens".