An okay start but there's room for improvement, says Wick manager ahead of Nairn trip
Manager Gary Manson feels Wick Academy have made “an okay start” to the Highland League campaign – but he will be looking for the Scorries to add to their points tally as they embark on a busy spell of fixtures over the next eight days.
Academy are away to managerless Nairn County on Saturday, then have a midweek trip to Forres before taking on Inverurie Locos at Harmsworth Park.
Last weekend's 1-1 draw at home to Rothes left Manson's side ninth in the table after their opening nine games.
“It's an okay start,” he said. “It's certainly an improvement on last season's start, but it's still only okay. There's definitely room for improvement.
“There's a lot of positives – four wins and a draw from the opening nine is a reasonable return. But you're always looking for more.
“The players will testify that I am quite greedy – I'm always wanting more out of them, I'm always wanting better, and that'll never stop. Even if we win I'm still looking for more.
“We go into every game with a degree of confidence. I said on Saturday that Rothes are in a false position in the league table and the same applies with Nairn.
“They're a better team, and have better players, than their league position would suggest at the present moment.
“It's still early days – you can't judge too much on league positions.
“They have have had a poor start, there's no getting away from that, but at the same time they are still a good side. They've drawn three of their seven games so far so it shows that they're not that far away.
“They'll be just waiting for that first win and hoping it kick-starts their season. They'll be going full out for it on Saturday, there's no doubt about that."
Nairn said this week they were hoping to conclude their search for a new boss as soon as possible following the resignation of Ronnie Sharp.
Conor Gethins was placed in temporary charge of first-team affairs, combining those duties with his playing role, and he was a spectator at Wick's match against Rothes as Nairn had no fixture that day.
Manson said: “I don't know what happened with the previous manager but with Conor Gethins coming in, he's a guy they all know and all respect. They'll be looking to impress, and you always get a little bounce when a management change comes in.
“If I was honest I would rather they didn't have a new management team for their game against us. But we'll go down there with the same confidence as we have in every game, try our best and apply ourselves in the right manner and see what happens.
“We've got a busy period coming up – Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday – so hopefully we'll stick some more points on the board.”
Manson says he has always enjoyed playing at Nairn's Station Park.
“It's a tight, enclosed ground with a nice surface,” he said. “Everybody that plays football should look forward to playing on good pitches.
"It's a good place to play football, so our boys are looking forward to it.”
Wick Academy will again have key players missing when they take on Nairn County at Station Park on Saturday – a familiar problem for manager Gary Manson.
Gordon NacNab is ruled out, while Sean Munro is likely to miss the next three games, and there are doubts over Ross Allan and Jack Halliday.
“Every single game I'm having to fight fires and put players possibly in wrong positions," Manson said. "It is what it is. It's far from ideal but it looks like this will be the norm.
“It's not ideal to be missing players every week, but we've had it since day one this season and last season and we've managed to find solutions so far.
“While you would love everybody to be there at the same time, it's something that I've become quite accustomed to – having to think outside the box and find different solutions to different obstacles.”
Academy's last win against Nairn County was in March 2019 when Marc Macgregor and Sam Mackay were the scorers in a 2-0 victory at Harmsworth Park.
Last season the teams drew 2-2 at Station Park October before Nairn won 2-0 at Wick in February.
Fixtures for Saturday – Highland League: Buckie Thistle v Turriff United; Deveronvale v Keith; Forres Mechanics v Rothes; Huntly v Strathspey Thistle; Inverurie Locos v Brechin City; Nairn County v Wick Academy.
North of Scotland Cup final: Brora Rangers v Clachnacuddin (at Grant Street Park, Inverness).