Chambers keeps Spurs in trophy hunt
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HIGH Ormlie Hotspur reached the last four of the David Allan Shield thanks to some help from neighbouring Caithness rugby club.
Spurs defeated Division Two rivals Castletown 1-0 at Ormlie Park thanks to defender James Harris’s unfortunate own goal.
However, the performance of 19-year-old goalkeeper Craig Chambers stole the show as he pulled off a series of saves to book Spurs a semi-final date on Monday against Thurso Acks.
No-one should be too surprised at Chambers being handy in goal, though, given that he’s also very good with his hands when he switches to rugby.
During the winter months, Craig is on the books of Caithness RFC and is not short of practice of how to handle a ball, be it round or oval.
Spurs boss Ewan McElroy said: “We rode our luck a little bit against Castletown.
“We had to rely on Craig pulling off a number of superb saves to keep us in the tie and his display ensured we now have a semi-final to look forward to.
“He also plays for Caithness rugby club so we know he is good with his hands, and so it proved.
“When playing rugby, he fills one of the back positions at centre or on the wing. Were he a prop forward, I’d think his performance for us would have been that more special.
“Craig has come in to play in goal for us because we’ve lost our regular goalkeeper Gordon Clark.
“Gordon is moving on to Wick Academy to be number two to Sean McCarthy and everyone here wishes him all the very best.
“As for the goal that won us the game, it was hard luck on their player. It was one of those situations where he had to stick a leg out, otherwise one of our players was going to fire the ball into the net.
“Sadly for him, instead of diverting it for a corner, it went the other way past their keeper.
“Despite the work that Craig had to do, we had other chances to score. Ryan Sutherland had one cleared off the line and Korbyn Cameron hit the bar.”
High Ormlie Hotspur have managed to avoid the big two of Wick Groats and Pentland United in the semi-final draw but McElroy is not for one minute thinking they’ve got an easy tie.
He added: “It wouldn’t have mattered if we had drawn one of those two out of the hat or not.
“We’ve been paired with Acks and they will be just as tough as Pentland or Groats.”
