New-look Wick Academy side 'starting to click', says Macadie
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The style of football being played by Wick Academy this season is going down well with supporters, according to Mark Macadie.
The Scorries brought in seven signings during the summer and Macadie believes the new-look team is now "starting to click".
Academy slipped to 14th in the Highland League after last Saturday's unlucky 3-2 home defeat to Nairn County.
Macadie made his first start for more than three months in that game, having suffered an arm injury at Rothes on August 19. The 20-year-old attacking midfielder ended up with a dislocated elbow after a collision with the Speysiders' keeper Sean McCarthy.
Academy travel to Keith on Saturday before a midweek journey to take on Strathspey Thistle.
With both teams currently below them in the table, the Scorries will be eager to pick up points.
After an exciting 2-1 win against Inverurie Locos at the start of this month, Academy had an entertaining 2-2 draw with Huntly, both at home. They pushed Buckie close for most of the match at Victoria Park a fortnight ago before going down 5-2, then conceded a freakish late goal to emerge empty-handed against in-form Nairn.
“It's looking on the up," Macadie said. "The football has been exciting to watch. People in the town are saying it, fans are saying it – it's good to watch and it's maybe better than the football we've been playing in the last two seasons.
“It's a brand new team this year. There's a lot of new boys that haven't maybe played at this level but we're finding that we are starting to click with each other.
“We've got a good run of games coming up – Keith, Strathspey Thistle, teams that we'll be looking to try and take some points from.”
Macadie, whose favoured position is wide left, was disappointed with the outcome of the Nairn match after Academy had put so much into it.
“We played well the whole game, I thought," he said. “They had maybe a few more substitutes to come on.
"We were missing a few boys that would have added a bit more depth and experience."
Academy are two places above Keith in the table and three points better off, although the Maroons have played one game fewer.
Manager Gary Manson said: "We've played well against some good teams in the last four games but have only come away with four points – possibly not what our performance levels have merited, but those are the breaks you get when you're playing against the top teams.
"We'll go into Saturday's game in good spirits and hopefully come back with three points.
"In our last four games we've scored eight goals, which is good going – but, as I say, we've walked away with only four points out of those games. It's the other side that we need to brush up on – it's the conceding goals side of it that needs to be better if we're going to get more points on the board.
"We've conceded 10 goals in our last three games so it's something that we need to improve on, there's no doubt about that."
Fixtures for Saturday, December 2 – Highland League: Banks O' Dee v Strathspey Thistle; Clachnacuddin v Inverurie Locos; Deveronvale v Buckie Thistle; Forres Mechanics v Brechin City; Keith v Wick Academy; Nairn County v Huntly; Rothes v Formartine United; Turriff United v Lossiemouth.
Sunday, December 3 – Highland League Cup final: Brora Rangers v Fraserburgh (at Harlaw Park, Inverurie).
Wednesday, December 6 – Highland League: Forres Mechanics v Huntly; Keith v Banks O' Dee; Lossiemouth v Inverurie Locos; Strathspey Thistle v Wick Academy.
