Manager wants Wick Academy to show competitive edge at Turriff
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Manager Gary Manson is confident Wick Academy can take something from Saturday's trip to Turriff United in the Highland League – if they play with the same competitiveness they showed against Rothes last weekend.
The Scorries fought out a goalless draw with the Speysiders at Harmsworth Park, regaining some pride following the 8-0 hammering they suffered against Clachnacuddin the previous week.
Turriff appointed Warren Cummings as manager in October after previous boss Dean Donaldson left for Inverurie Locos. They are now eighth in the table, while Academy are 14th.
The Aberdeenshire club came from behind to win 5-1 when they visited Wick in September.
“It was a strange game, that one," Manson said. "We dominated the first half and had about three clear-cut chances.
“We only took one of them and should have been 3-0 up at half-time. The second half was a bit of a disaster.
“They've been together now for maybe two or three years. They went down a completely different route to what they'd done previously.
"They got a more or less brand new squad of young players. There would have been a time when their oldest player would have been maybe 22 or 23, so they've kind of all grown together in the last couple of years.
"They've stuck together and they're having a reasonably good season so far.
“The new manager has come in and carried that on and they're doing really well."
Manson has a one-game touchline ban after being shown the red card by referee Scott Donohoe during the first half of the Rothes match.
Turriff won comfortably away to Clachnacuddin last weekend in a game that had a similar scoring pattern to the Wick v Turriff encounter four months ago. The Lilywhites scored first, through Troy Cooper, only for Turriff to run out 5-1 winners with a penalty by Ewan Clark and further strikes from Reece McKeown, Murray Cormack, Callan Gray and John Allan.
Manson said: “It'll be a tough game. They had a good result last week and they'll be going into this week's game in good mood.
“We'll just need to go down with the same discipline, the same willingness to compete in the dirty side of the game as we did on Saturday, and you never know."
The Scorries have gone three games without scoring, having drawn 0-0 away to Deveronvale in their last outing before Christmas.
“We're finding goals reasonably hard to come by at the moment so hopefully that changes on Saturday and we can take something from the game,” Manson said.
Striker Gordon MacNab, who injured himself in the act of scoring against Huntly in November, is still not ready to return to the team.
“He'll be back hopefully in full training this week," Manson said. "We'll see how he is after that but he won't be in the squad for Saturday.”
Academy will be hoping Turriff's ground at The Haughs has recovered from the flooding that affected it between Christmas and New Year.
In the September match at Harmsworth Park, Ross Gunn gave Academy the lead on the half-hour mark but John Allan equalised on the stroke of half-time and the same player put the visitors ahead early in the second period. Max Foster, Ewan Clark and Dylan Stuart added further goals.
Highland League results: Clachnacuddin 1, Turriff United 5; Deveronvale 2, Fraserburgh 4; Huntly 1, Inverurie Locos 2; Nairn County 0, Brechin City 1; Wick Academy 0, Rothes 0.
Fixtures for Saturday, January 13: Brechin City v Rothes; Formartine United v Keith; Forres Mechanics v Deveronvale; Fraserburgh v Clachnacuddin; Huntly v Buckie Thistle; Inverurie Locos v Brora Rangers; Lossiemouth v Banks O' Dee; Strathspey Thistle v Nairn County; Turriff United v Wick Academy (3pm).
