Tuesday 14 August 2007, 7:00pm
Tomatin Cup Semi Final

CARR-BRIDGE 2-1 TOMATIN

Carr-bridge secured their second cup final berth of the season by defeating Tomatin in a superb game which contained everything a cup match should have.

Two evenly matched sides went for it straight from the kick-off, with Tomatin gaining an early upper-hand. Gordie MacDonald was forced into making two excellent fingertip saves within the first 10 minutes, with Carr-bridge not having a real effort on goal till Wilkinson lashed the side netting on 17 minutes. Grant did have the ball in the net 3 minutes later, but it was ruled offside.

Carr-bridge then began to up the tempo, and a McIntosh header shaved the outside of Tomatin's post from a Orris corner. Ten minutes later Grant found himself through on goal but was denied by Tomatin's stand-in keeper's legs. Then Wilkinson forced another save from the visiting stopper who superbly tipped the ball past the post right on the stroke of half time.

The second half kicked off in similar fashion to the first with Carr-bridge gunning for the cup final spot and Tomatin doing their best to stop them. And almost from the whistle, Grant beat the offside trap and unselfishly slid a sideways pass to Scott MacDonald who somehow failed to hit the mark as the ball trundled wide. At the other end brother Gordie had to be on his toes as he once more pulled off an excellent save to keep the scores level.

It was always going to take something special to break the deadlock, and Ian Cormack provided just that. On the hour mark, he found himself on the end of a scrambled Tomatin clearance, and from a full 30 yards out unleashed an unstoppable right foot volley into the back of the net to send the home side into rapture.

But shortly afterwards Wilkinson almost made it 1-1 as his mistimed header swept past the left post, much to his own and keeper MacDonald's relief.

However only a minute later an outstanding display of heads-up football gave Carr-bridge a 2 goal lead. Scott MacDonald spotted Peter Zsedely wide open and took a quick throw-in as the Tomatin players were still organising themselves into position. The mop-topped Hungarian accepted the ball eagerly, spotted the keeper off his line and delivered an exquisite chip over his head and into the net.

Tomatin weren't finished though, and as Carr-bridge settled into seeing out time, MacDonald was helpless as a header flashed past him into the net to throw the visitors a lifeline. This seemed to spur them on, and as the regulation 45 minutes came to an end, MacDonald made a point-blank save to keep Carr-bridge in the lead before the referee mercifully blew for full time to send the homesters into Friday's final with RBL.

Carr-bridge MOM: Cormack

Scorers: Cormack, Zseledy

Team: G.MacDonald, Cormack, Edwards, McIntosh, M.Harrower, Orris, Wilkinson, Zseledy, S.MacDonald, Grant, Forrest

Subs: B.Campbell (for McIntosh), McGeogh (for M.Harrower)
Not used: Gordon

Booked: none
Sent off: none

Half-time: 0-0