Allan is hailed as 'a great role model' after scoring on 400th competitive appearance for Wick Academy
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Wick Academy assistant manager Michael Gray hailed Davie Allan as “a great role model” after the 32-year-old forward found the net on his 400th competitive appearance for the club.
Allan grabbed the Scorries' second goal in their 3-2 win against Fort William at Harmsworth Park, having earlier been fouled for the penalty that allowed player/manager Gary Manson to open the scoring from the spot.
Gray said: “He's a wily old fox, is Davie. He just has that knack of drawing challenges and knowing where to be.
“I think he's a great role model for players looking to play in that position. He knows where to pick up the space and I don't know anyone that is better at drawing out fouls in the area.
“He's a model to work with. He never misses training – he's always there, week in, week out. He is very dependable.”
Saturday's strike took Allan into double figures for the season and his goal tally for Academy now stands at 159.
“It's always good to get a goal, so I was delighted with that,” Allan said.
“In the first half we were well on top. It's probably the story of our season – we let them back into it a wee bit once we went 3-0 up.
“We were hanging on at the end but I think we probably deserved it over the piece."
Allan accepts that retaining eighth position in the league is a realistic target for Academy over the remainder of the campaign. Anything higher might now be a step too far following recent narrow defeats to the two teams immediately above them in the table, Rothes and Formartine United.
“We'll try and win as many games as we can until the end of the season but probably to get higher than eighth would be a bit difficult now,” Allan said.
“Those were games we should have got something out of and we might have had a chance. It's probably a wee bit difficult now, but you never know – we'll try and win as many games as we can and see where that takes us.”
Allan is in his 14th season at Harmsworth Park, having signed in December 2008. He is third on the list of the club's top scorers, behind Richard Macadie and Gary Weir.
