Kirkwood challenges Wick Academy players to move up the league
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“WE’RE in a false position but we are in this position and the only people who can do anything about it are the players.”
Those are the words of Wick Academy manager Davie Kirkwood who has challenged his squad to lift themselves out of 12th place in the Highland Football League.
Academy are only two points behind the next nearest team, so an away win against Cove Rangers tomorrow could be just what the Scorries need to shift them into a higher position.
However, Kirkwood has come up against the Aberdeenshire outfit before and knows a win at Allan Park is no easy feat.
“I came across them in the third round of the Scottish Cup about four years ago when I was at Ross County,” he explained.
“So I know it’s a tight park and I know that they play quick and direct – we’ll try and combat that.
“Obviously they beat Formartine 6-3 last weekend so they are no mugs and they are at home so they will be formidable opponents.”
The Scorries manager said he is looking to keep a tightknit team but warned fans that there will be players missing.
“Obviously we’ll try and keep it tight but we’ll have casualties this weekend,” he said.
“I’ll dip into the squad and maybe some players that haven’t featured in the past few weeks will make an appearance.”
James More remains top of the injury list with a fractured wrist and key midfielder Craig Shearer is also out as he is attending a wedding. Other injury doubts will be assessed before the trip south.
Kirkwood said young players such as James Mackay and Allan Hughes had “done themselves no harm, whatsoever” during the recent Formartine game and that he had “no qualms” about bringing youngsters into the fold.
“The team is playing well so the players that do come in know they have to perform or they won’t stay in the side,” he said.
“We’re not going to get carried away because we’ve beaten Formartine and Nairn. We want to build up consistency.”
Meanwhile, Cove manager Kevin Tindal has also been struggling with a growing injury list this season.
He has resorted to putting midfielders further back to replace missing defenders.
“We’ve not really had a settled back four for a number of weeks now and that’s probably been our main concern,” he said. “We’ve got midfielders playing at the back and guys playing out of position.
“Once we get our squad back together that will let them play in their natural positions and give us a wee bit more stability.”
For tomorrow’s game Tindal said he would be fielding a largely similar squad to the one that beat Formartine last week.
“I’m hopeful that a couple of the guys that took knocks at the weekend and had to come off will be fine,” he said. “But other than that we will be along the same lines as last Saturday.”
Tindal said he expects Wick to be on a high from the past couple of weeks.
“They had a great result at the weekend and I’m sure they will come down full of confidence and give us a really tough game,” he said.
“It was close at home last year and they gave us quite a heavy defeat up at Wick. We’re under no illusions that this is going to be a big test for us.”
