Glasgow Island win Mòd Cup on pens

In truth it wasn’t the most free flowing football encounter, not helped by some torrential rain, but the two sides served up an engrossing encounter which spilled over into exciting in the last quarter of the game.

The early exchanges saw Glasgow Island take an early foothold in the game, with the Select looking to exploit the pace of Luke Mackay and Innes Ian Morrison at every opportunity on the break. After a couple of promising Select counters had come to nothing, Glasgow Island took the lead on ten minutes when what was either a mishit cross or very clever ball to the near post by Caley Mackay was turned in by Ali ‘Eriskay’ Macdonald.

The Select came back strongly after that setback, and the movement of the aforementioned Mackay and Morrison was causing some problems for the GI rearguard, and a through ball on the 20 minute mark saw Kris Lucas and Innes Ian Morrison racing for it.

Morrison hit the turf under a strong challenge from Glasgow defender Kris Lucas with the whistler awarding the hosts a penalty. Innes Ian shut out the distractions of howls of protest from Glasgow Island and made no mistake with the penalty.

The remainder of the half was pretty forgettable, and the sides went in 1-1 with the Select having had a couple of decent chances to go in front while Steven Dunn should have done better with a back post header following a searching ball from Caley Mackay.

Glasgow Island came out of the traps with the greater purpose in the second half, and this was rewarded within a few minutes when a Donnie Macleod run down the right saw him cut the ball back to Steven Dunn on the penalty spot.

Dunn swiveled and shot and a nick off a Select defender saw the ball end up in the back of James Maceod’s net.

This time Glasgow Island did not allow the Select to get back into it as in the first half, and for the first time some daylight started to appear between the two sides, yet clear cut chances were still at a premium as the rain refused to abate. With just over a quarter of an hour left, Angus Macdonald’s frustration boiled over and a second yellow card meant that the Select would have to play the closing stages a man down.

With time running out Lewis and Harris dramatically forced a penalty shoot-out when Archie Macdonald booted home from close range,

The Glasgow Island lads could have been forgiven for being mentally drained having looked certain to win in normal time, but they held their nerve and executed 3 penalties to the Select’s 1 to ensure the Mòd Cup was not to be spending a year in the Western Isles, but sitting behind the bar in the Snaffle Bit in Glasgow, instead.