Groats and Pentland set for final showdown
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It will be a Pentland United v Wick Groats final as the County League's top two both came up trumps in their Eain Mackintosh Cup semi-finals.
Pentland turned on the style to dish out six of the best to Lybster with a thumping 6-1 victory.
James Murray in particular was in red-hot form as he turned in a man of the match performance to hammer in four goals. Conor Cormack and Sean Campbell were also on target for the Dunnet side.
Shell-shocked Lybster had been in decent form ahead of this tie only to be ruthlessly dismantled by their visitors. All they had to show for their efforts was a Jonah Martens penalty – and that came when Pentland were already as good as through having been 4-0 up prior to their Cow Park hosts scoring.
They will meet perennial rivals Wick Groats who gained revenge on Staxigoe United for robbing them of their 100 per cent league record with a 2-1 win.
Once again this was a closely-fought contest with a rejuvenated Staxigoe looking more like their old selves instead of the team that got off to a bad start earlier this season.
However, Wick Groats, having been served notice by their visitors of an improvement last weekend, raised their own levels and managed to race into a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Ben Sinclair and Sandy Sutherland.
Staxigoe though would not give up without a fight and pulled one back via Bryan Reid. Despite throwing everything at Groats in a bid to force extra-time, the home side – unlike the recent league fixture – managed to hold them off to book a place in the final.
The Eain Mackintosh Cup final will take place on July 6, 2019, at Halkirk's Recreation Park. It will be the second cup final this season between Wick Groats and Pentland United with the two sides due to meet each this Saturday in the Colin Macleod Memorial Cup final at Castletown's Back Park with a 3pm kick-off.
Elsewhere, in Division One of the CAFA league, a 'labour of love' hampered John O'Groats' chances of victory as they blew a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at home to Castletown.
Iain Green was missing for them having been called to hospital as his wife had just gone into labour.
Player/manager Grant Budge said: "Iain's wife, we're delighted to say, gave birth to a baby girl a couple of hours after the game – although there is talk of fining Iain £20 for missing the match."
Joking apart, there wasn't much else for Budge to laugh about having seen a number of other call-offs.
He added: "Aside from Iain, we had another player missing because he was attending a stag-do while Jimmy Budge was out with tonsillitis and a list of others unavailable too.
"We were forced to play a trialist, Ryan Banks, who actually turned out to be our man of the match. Overall, I'd say 2-2 was a fair result."
On target for John O'Groats were Mark Webster and Grant Budge himself. Benn Murray and Greg MacLeod replied for Castletown.
In Division Two, High Ormlie Hotspur's revival continues as they thrashed Keiss 7-2.
Korbyn Cameron (2), James Mackintosh (2), Marc Keith, Euan Munro and Craig Chambers all netted for Spurs. Keiss' consolation strikes came via Adam Sherry and Gaius Bews.
