Gunn wants Wick Academy to be competitive force again
Ross Gunn insists Wick Academy are looking to drive on and be a competitive force in the Highland League again after Saturday’s 2-0 opening-day victory over Fraserburgh.
“It was a hard-fought win,” the 23-year-old midfielder said. “Fraserburgh are a top team.
“It’s always good to have a good start to the season, especially after last year where we were really poor at the start. Hopefully we can make a bit of a run now.”
Against the run of play, Gary Pullen had the Scorries 1-0 up after half an hour with a terrific volley. Gunn made sure of the points with a coolly placed finish a couple of minutes from full-time.
It is the first time since 2016 that Wick have won their first game.
“You know what Fraserburgh are and what they’re going to do,” Gunn said. “They’re a hard, hard team to play against, big lads, so it’s hard to defend against.
“We did well against them. I don’t think they threatened in the second half – they had one or two headers, but I thought we coped with them pretty well.
“It was hard, but you just need to dig deep. Fraserburgh were just going at us, but I don’t think they threatened that much.
“Again, with last season, we only really played against the top teams for a half. We played the first half well, so we were told at the break to play well in both.
“We just needed that, and a good effort from the back to make sure of the result.”
On his goal, scored on a late counter-attack, Gunn said: “My legs were going in the last minutes. I was playing a little bit deeper but managed to get on the break.
“I thought I could take it round the goalkeeper, but then I saw the Fraserburgh player running behind me.
“George [Ewing] missed a similar chance before me. He had a one-on-one too, so I thought if I get my foot through it, there’s no chance I’ll miss this.”
Gunn was quick to congratulate new team-mates George Ewing and Callan Jessiman and said the result would not have been possible without their support and ability.
“We’ve not played much together, but the new boys are really good,” Gunn said. “It’s great to have five boys come off the bench and it’s good that they made an impact, again especially after last year where we were struggling for players at points.”
Looking ahead, Gunn remains grounded but optimistic when analysing the team’s chances of success in the 2024/25 campaign. He said that after last season, when Academy were dumped out of all three cups at the first hurdle, advancing in those tournaments would be a priority.
“We’ll just take one game at a time and see what happens,” he said. “Hopefully we can string a few cup runs together and see, but we’re not getting ahead of ourselves. This was only one game.
“We’re aiming to have a better points tally than last season and not get thrown out of the cups after the first round.”
Next up, Academy travel to face Huntly at Christie Park on Saturday.
Gunn said: “It’s another tough game. Our away record wasn’t great last season so hopefully we can improve on that.
“We showed that we can be good at home last season, and after this result [against Fraserburgh] we just need to get the away form going and we’ll see where we finish in the league.”
