Preliminary football squad announced for County
Ryan Nicolson
Manager Kevin Main has named his preliminary 20-man squad for the forthcoming inter-county clash against Orkney.
Players from Spurs, Whitedale and Celtic dominate the squad list, with no players from Delting selected and just two players from Ness United.
Captain Richard Arthur is by far the most experienced in the fixture with 11 inter-county caps to his name already, while there could be first inter-county caps for six players, including Spurs’ Ronan Grant and Whitedale’s Ali Scott, who returned to Whitedale this year after a season playing with Bressay Sharks in the Ocean Quality Works League.
The full 20-man squad list is:
1 – Grant Wood (Spurs)
2 – Adrian Morrison (Whitedale)
3 – Saul Swanson (Thistle)
4 – Stuart Copland (Ness)
5 – Robert Smith (Celtic)
6 – Piotr Drozdowski (Whitedale)
7 – Liam Flaws (Ness)
8 – Colin Anderson (Whalsay)
9 – Richard Arthur (Captain) (Whalsay)
10 – Joel Bradley (Celtic)
11 – John Allan (Scalloway)
12 – Ali Scott (Whitedale)
13 – Lorne McNiven (Whitedale)
14 – Jack Clubb (Celtic)
15 – James Aitken (Celtic)
16 – Sam Maver (Spurs)
17 – Ronan Grant (Spurs)
18 – Calvin Leask (Thistle)
19 – Lewis Harkness (Spurs)
20 – Greg Tulloch (Whitedale)
The Shetland team suffered a chastening 5-1 reversal in the 100th Milne Cup fixture last summer in Kirkwall, and will be keen to ensure the cup stays on home soil this year.
Shetland have not lost a Milne Cup match at home since 1981.
They finished fourth at this summer’s Inter Island football tournament in Ynys Môn, losing narrowly to the hosts 2-1 in the semi-finals before a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of the Isle of Man in the bronze medal play-off.
Orkney finished eight out of ten teams at the same tournament, losing three of their four matches.
The 101st Milne Cup match between the teams will take place at the Gilbertson Park at 5:00pm on Saturday 27th July.
Peter Smith
Hmm.
An all male squad playing on a council park.
Might there be trouble ahead? Will the SFA remain as silent as the UHAC?
Ian Tinkler
Sadly no ladies were selected to play. It is a physical and biological thing, all to do with genetics, testosterone, prostaglandins and oestrogen. At school level, there are many mixed teams in the UK. It is only the gender/testosterone challenged XY that fear the girls may steal their thunder at playtime. Usually, they play at pretendy Vikings in Lerwick.
Haydn Gear
So, Charles and Camilla ( presumably) are soon to visit Shetland on a flying visit. Will there be time enough to nip along to Aith to rekindle memories of the 29th of July 1986 when Charles and Diana named the Aith Lifeboat ? I’m sure it would be a most fitting and memorable tribute.