Academy out for revenge in cup derby
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DERBY revenge is in the air ahead of Wick’s crunch North of Scotland Cup clash at Brora Rangers.
Local rivalries are usually intense and it is no different when Academy and Brora meet up on the pitch.
Brora currently enjoy bragging rights having defeated the Scorries 2-0 on the opening day of this season’s Highland League.
As much as the travelling Academy faithful were disappointed at the result, the manner in which they did so not only rankles with them but also with Wick boss Tom McKenna.
Having shown some encouraging signs during the pre-season that were enough to instil some optimism in the Academy camp ahead of the last Brora fixture, the performance was a let-down.
In fairness to Academy, take the Deveronvale loss out of the equation and things have not been at all bad since the opening day.
In the last round of the North of Scotland Cup they brushed aside Strathspey Thistle 5-1 and in the league they’ve hammered Nairn County away, steamrollered over Lossiemouth and knocked high-flying Formartine United off their perch on Saturday.
Brora, meanwhile, have built on the derby win with an impressive run of results with a defeat to league leaders Fraserburgh being the only stain on their copybook.
Not surprisingly, Brora are considered to be favourites for tonight’s cup showdown at Dudgeon Park but McKenna is hoping his team can make amends for that opening-day loss.
He said: “The good result we got at Formartine sets us up nicely for this one. Obviously there is a good chance for us to get revenge for what happened last time.
“More importantly, from our point of view, this match presents us with a good opportunity to see if we have improved from that loss to Brora.
“That was a poor day for us and it was not a true reflection as to what our squad is capable of.
“The training session we had before that game, the lads were a bit quiet and I wondered if they were a bit apprehensive about the match.
“We gave a subdued performance. Brora had more intensity about them and bullied us. We need to front up on Wednesday to ensure that doesn’t happen again.
“If we show the same desire as we did against Formartine, we’ll hopefully see a better performance and a different result from last time.”
The corridors in the Academy dressing room displays a large picture of Wick celebrating winning this competition in the 2015/16 season.
And McKenna reckons it’s high time another trophy-winning image was hung up alongside that.
He added: “We want to ensure the cup win picture in the dressing room is accompanied by another. I love to win things and that’s why I’m in this job.”
