Staxigoe spared long trip to take on Lerwick
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STAXIGOE United will be spared the long trip to Shetland after they were drawn to face Lerwick Spurs.
The Upper Bignold men looked set to be preparing a toothbrush and a change of clothes when their name came out of the hat for the Highland Amateur Cup directly after the Shetlanders.
Lerwick themselves are no strangers to long-distance travel, having taken in the scenery of the North Sea, the Grampian region and the North Coast 500 route to play Dornoch in the last round before a mad dash to Scrabster and then Kirkwall to reach connecting ferry services.
Staxigoe, who went through after a 6-3 home win over Inverness side Ferrybache, will be spared such a journey themselves with both clubs agreeing to compromise and play the tie at an Orkney venue.
United boss Andrew Banks said: “It is a relief because the lads would have been giving up their entire weekends.
“It’s amateur football and some of the lads have families and would have gone an entire weekend without seeing their wives and kids.
“At least this way, only one day of the weekend will be taken up. We’ve still got to go to Orkney but it is feasible for us to do inside a day.
“I was speaking to my counterpart at Lerwick and he was saying that in order to fulfil their tie at Dornoch they had to catch a ferry to Aberdeen, then travel all that way from there to Dornoch.
“Then once the match was done, they had to get away to Scrabster to catch the Orkney ferry. Then they had to dash from Stromness to Kirkwall to make the night sailing back to Shetland – and all at a cost of £1300.
“Fair play to them for doing that. We could at a push raise that kind of money, but this way ensures that the tie between us actually gets played.”
Staxigoe turned on the style in a superb first half against Ferrybache when they went in at the interval 6-0 up.
Martin Banks hit four, with Gordon MacNab and Marc Coghill also netting. A Liam Taylor double and one from Michael Shields restored some pride to Ferrybache.
Banks added: “Martin was our man of the match – and rightly so – but special mention must also go to Marc and our left-back Hasheem Bremner. He set up all of Martin’s goals and his opposite number didn’t know what to do with him.”
Meanwhile, John O’Groats booked themselves a third-round trip to Maryburgh having come back from behind to beat Kirkwall Hotspurs 3-1.
Kyle Robb put Hotspurs in front after five minutes before Grant Budge, Alan Davis and Jimmy Budge made sure of the tie for Groats.
Coaching staff member Willie Ross said: “When they took that early lead you thought ‘here we go again’ but the lads stuck at it and got their rewards.
“In fact, we could have made things easier on ourselves by scoring more than we did.
“Maryburgh are next and it will be a tough trip. They are top of their league and will probably be favourites for this one.”
