McKenna: 'I got substitutions call wrong'
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WICK Academy manager Tom McKenna has held his hands up and admitted he could have made more use of his bench last Saturday.
The Scorries fell to a disappointing 2-0 Highland League defeat at home to Forres Mechanics, with criticism by some fans on social media of the boss making only one substitution.
From a bench of six outfield players, only Craig Gunn was sent on – in place of Jack Halliday – to try and retrieve the situation, with Grant Aitkenhead, Jonah Martens, Mark Macadie, Alan Hughes and Ross Allan all kicking their heels for the rest of the match.
McKenna says there was an explanation for his line of thinking but admits that in the cold light of day he got it wrong.
He said: "At the time, there was a period of the match when we were having a good spell and creating chances.
"I had been of a mind to make some more changes but, given that passage of the game, I felt it best not to disrupt the flow of the team as they were on top for a while.
"Now, with hindsight, I maybe should have made those changes and brought a couple more of the substitutes on.
"But the call that I did make backfired and it was the wrong decision to make.
"I'm someone who assesses my own performance before I evaluate how well the players did and I'm always looking to put right anything I do get wrong as a coach."
Wick Academy travel to second-from-bottom Lossiemouth this weekend and while getting back to winning ways will still see them ninth in the table, to lose could see them drop as far down as 12th.
They work hard and have players up front who can cause us problems
"We've got to use that as an incentive to win at Lossiemouth," McKenna said.
"As a club, we prefer to be looking at what's ahead, not down.
"The boys had a good training session. We had a good discussion about what happened against Forres.
"We all felt it was a good chance of getting three points and extending our run and we had enough quality and experience to do that.
"Unfortunately, it was a very disappointing day at the office for us.
"People can say that Lossiemouth gives us a chance to get back on track but we're not taking anything for granted.
"Regardless of where Lossiemouth are in the table, they work hard and have players up front who can cause us problems if we allow them to.
"We won at their place last season but our last two goals [Academy won 3-0] came late on in the game so we're under no illusions that we will be in for a tough afternoon – no matter how well Lossiemouth are doing in the league."
Academy had a comfortable 5-1 victory when the Coasters visited Harmsworth Park in September.
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