Academy stir up Broch for victory
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IT’S getting hard to predict which Wick Academy will show up for games.
The Scorries side capable of downing Formartine at the latter’s own backyard or the one who folded without a whimper to Deveronvale?
You would have been as well spinning a coin in order to predict which Wick would arrive at Bellslea Park to take on high-flying Fraserburgh.
Thankfully, the one that manager Tom McKenna wishes would show up every week, was on display as a superb performance racked up an impressive 3-2 victory.
Goals from Michael Steven, Davie Allan – who was targeted for some rough treatment that saw his bruise receive bruises – and Richard MacAdie, the latter scoring on his 500th appearance for the club – earned them a deserved win. Paul Campbell’s double replied for Broch who themselves had Bryan Hay sent off.
Yet again Academy stood up to be counted against one of the Highland League’s top teams – you just wonder why when it comes to the rest, the Scorries switch from being brilliant to looking like they’ve just met each for the first time.
It’s enough to make a manager tear his hair out – although given McKenna hasn’t much of that to play with, a new scalp might need to be ordered just in case.
However, McKenna himself was a happy man at Bellslea having seen his players justify his faith in them with a display that suggested the wrong team was at the top end of the table.
He said; “Their manager (Mark Cowie) said to me afterwards that his boys couldn’t get near us – especially in the first half.
“The lads were absolutely brilliant. We tend to go from one extreme to the other and they know how to put me through the mill alright.
“I’ve said it before but I wish we could play the top teams every week as this type of fixture tends to draw something extra from the lads.
“There’s a reason why the likes of Fraserburgh are one of the top teams is that they are able to take care of fixtures against teams in the bottom half. We have not been doing that on a regular basis.
“However, this was a great win for us and we need to build on it. Winning here brought home the disappointing results against Clach and Deveronvale.”
McKenna praised his players to the hilt and was delighted at a fine all-round performance.
“Sean (McCarthy) in goal was exceptional. The back four were solid and got stuck in and our midfield never stopped working.
“The forwards caused Fraserburgh all sorts of problems that they took kicking Davie Allan off the park. They couldn’t handle his pace and the lad who got sent off was done for hacking Davie down to deny him a goalscoring opportunity.”
