Nightmare defending sees Scorries spiral out of cup
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Wick Academy ..... 0
Huntly ..... 3
(Kai Ross 46, Paul Esslemont 50, Cai Matthew 90)
Kamikaze defending in the first five minutes of the second half saw Wick Academy tumble out of the Highland League Cup on Saturday.
Following a less than enthralling first half, the Scorries handed Huntly a home tie against Brora Rangers in the next round with two calamitous errors.
Injuries had meant that midfielder Sam Mackay played out of position at in defence. However, a routine clearance that should have been booted into the cemetery next to Harmsworth Park was sliced back to Huntly's Paul Esslemont whose cross was duly headed in by Kai Ross.
Five minutes later, Wick forgot to track Esslemont as he jumped to meet Ross's free kick. What made matters worse was that Academy goalie James More – in for the ill Sean McCarthy – had a rush of blood to the head and came flying from his line.
Had he stayed put, he would have had a comfortable save to make. Instead, he was beaten to the ball by Esslemont whose header sailed into an empty net.
The first half offered little to warm up the supporters who had braved a bitterly cold day. A morning pitch inspection had deemed the Harmsworth pitch to be playable, although the frost from a few days ago had left its mark with chunks of turf coming up at regular intervals.
Not that the Scorries can fall back on the state of the pitch as an excuse – it was the same for Huntly who, despite having a number of selection issues of their own, closed Wick down and, thanks to a highly efficient offside trap, never gave their hosts a sniff of goal.
On the rare occasion that Academy beat the trap, they proceeded to squander any opportunity gained from it – Alan Hughes's miscued effort from Davie Allan's low cross being a particular example.
Craig Gunn will no doubt feel he should have hit the back of the net when slipped in by Davie Allan soon after, only to smash his effort off the legs of Huntly keeper Euan Storrier.
There were shouts for a penalty when Gunn went down under a challenge from Ashley Ballam. However, if contact had been made, Gunn's very dramatic descent to the ground cast enough doubt into the mind of referee Gordon Morrison who waved play on.
Then came those wacky five minutes with Wick's defence twice at fault.
Unfortunately for Academy, Huntly's back four were not as charitable as each home attack was repelled.
Indeed, the visitors looked the more likely to score and that is what they did two minutes into stoppage time when a quick break up the park allowed Cai Matthew to coolly dispatch a low shot past More.
A bad day at the office for Academy, and one they won't want to repeat this Saturday when title-chasing Fraserburgh are the visitors.
Wick Academy: More, Manson, Farquhar, S Mackay, R Allan, Campbell, Henry, Halliday (M Macadie 73), Hughes (Macrae 61), Gunn, D Allan. Subs not used: R Macadie, Aitkenhead, Koziol, Lewis Gallacher.
Huntly: Storrier, Johnstone, Murison, Still, Ross, McKeown (Czurylo 86), MacDonald (Reid 80), Esslemont (Matthew 74), Ballam, Manson, Hay. Sub not used: Farquhar
Referee: Gordon Morrison.
