SAM Mackay’s man-of-the-match performance against Forres Mechanics has been hailed by his manager, who declared he is too good to be playing in the Highland League.
Davie Kirkwood said that the 22-year-old has what it takes to play at the highest level in Scotland as he was the best player on the pitch at Harmsworth Park on Saturday in the 3-2 home win.
Two goals from Mackay and his off-the-line clearance in injury time helped the Scorries’ impressive form and saw them take another scalp from one of the top clubs in North football.
Praising Mackay’s role in the victory, Kirkwood said that the player has the ability to make it in the SPL, if he can get his head together.
"I have spoken to Sam about this before and he knows he let himself go as a young player," said the manager. "He should be playing at a higher level than this and that performance shows what he is capable of achieving.
"I played at the professional level but would have loved to have had the ability he has, he just has to be able to maintain consistency to keep that standard up.
"I’m not saying anything about the standard of the Premier League, but for a lad of his age he is as good as any player I’ve seen this season."
Forres Mechanics’ height advantage was the main worry for Kirkwood prior to the game, but he was impressed by how his players managed to combat it.
He also had praise for his backline which kept its nerve in injury time to hold on for the win.
"Forres are a big a physical side and they were always going to win the first ball in the air, but we were winning the second ball every time and kept them under constant pressure," said Kirkwood.
"Despite the weather conditions, we played some very good football out there which Forres seemed unable to handle.
"But they came back strongly and to be fair to my players they kept their cool to hold on for the win.
"It would have been easy for them after coming from three-nil up to defending a single-goal lead to panic at the back and concede a late equaliser, but they stood up to it.
"There was always a danger of us making a mistake which would let Forres back in it, but that is how you learn from the game."
Forres Mechanics manager Charlie Rowley said that the three-goal deficit was too much for his team to pull back, but he was happy with how his players had responded.
"It wasn’t a good result in our push towards getting back to the top," he said. "Wick are playing really well and in the first half we struggled to get to grips with them.
"We came back towards half-time but the second goal put us under huge pressure.
"In the second half we gave everything to get back in it and I felt we edged it, but although we had chances Michael Gray made some good saves.
"I feel we were unlucky overall not to get the point, but they’ll feel that would have been unfair."
