Boss McKenna proud of his brave Scorries
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Wick boss Tom McKenna said he couldn't have been more proud of his players following their 1-0 derby day loss to Brora.
With a number of key players ruled out, the manager had to shuffle his pack and make do with those still standing.
As Brora were at full strength, Wick fans might have been forgiven had they been fearing a repeat of the heavy defeat their favourites suffered at the hands of the Cattachs in a cup tie earlier this season.
While ultimately it did end in defeat for the Scorries, the tight scoreline and much-improved performance from Wick's makeshift XI did give McKenna renewed hope for the rest of the campaign.
"You couldn't ask for any more from the lads," he said. "I thought they were fantastic today and I'm really proud of them.
"We were up against a team that's spent thousands and thousands of pounds and we've taken them to the wire, gone toe-to-toe with them and matched them. That was absolutely brilliant.
"Yes, the result didn't go our way, but hopefully that performance will be the foundation for us to build upon and get our season going again.
"Taking into consideration we got battered 6-0 the last time we played them, we did have a point to prove.
"You look at the players we had missing. I took a phone call from Davie Allan and he said he had to go off to hospital. We'll hopefully find out soon the extent of what he was suffering with and how soon he can return to the squad.
"We were also missing Sam Mackay and Grant Steven but the players who came in did brilliantly.
"Grant took a knock in training and our intention after that was to move Craig Gunn to right-back as he has filled in for us before in that role.
"Craig was man of the match. He was up against one of the top players [Paul Brindle] in the league. He kept him quiet and forced their manager to substitute him as he wasn't getting much out of Craig.
"Every single one of of them was superb. The formation worked for us as it was very solid. The lads are committed to it as it's working for them.
"The match wasn't for the purists, but if you give a team with the quality that Brora has free rein of the pitch they are just going to walk all over you.
"We wanted to frustrate them, contain them and restrict them as much as we could. Unfortunately, for the goal, we switched off and were punished for it."
Brora manager Steven Mackay admitted his heart was in his mouth as Jack Halliday came within the width of a post of securing a draw for Wick Academy in the last action of Saturday's derby at Harmsworth Park.
Mackay was glad of the three points that took his side to within three points of league leaders Buckie Thistle, but admitted that his side would have had no excuses had Halliday's effort gone in rather than bounce off an upright.
"We were a little bit disappointed with our performance given the levels that we have reached during the season," Mackay said.
"But we've come away from here with a clean sheet and three points is good. The goal was a good move from the right and Dale took a good touch on it and finished it really well.
"I felt we could have kicked on from there but it didn't happen for us. The pitch was not conducive to playing nice, flowing football but we stressed to our players to keep putting the ball into key areas that could hurt Wick.
"Unfortunately, in the second half we didn't do that as often as we would have liked and with the score at 1-0 Wick were going to feel that they would have a chance of coming back.
"Sure enough they got that late on. My heart was in my mouth when their player had that chance late on. I thought it was in.
"That could be a season-defining moment given results elsewhere went our way and we've come away from here relatively unscathed – albeit rather fortunate to have done so."
