Scorries boss plans for bad-weather breaks
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WICK Academy manager Davie Kirkwood can’t understand why his squad is not playing a rescheduled fixture this weekend.
The tabled Highland Football League game against Inverurie Locos is postponed as they are playing in the third round of the William Hill Scottish Cup, leaving the Scorries a free weekend. With a game in hand and the weather looking clear, Kirkwood can’t get his head around why the league officials wouldn’t sanction another game.
“The league won’t do it,” he said. “We tried to do it with the Fort William game the last time there was a free weekend but we were told it would be an unfair advantage.
“I don’t understand why because obviously the bad weather is going to kick in sooner or later.”
Going into the winter months is always a cause for concern for Highland League managers and Kirkwood is no exception.
But he believes that he has the contingencies in place to keep up the team’s momentum.
“The games are likely to be disrupted but the training won’t be because we have access to the all-weather pitch and we can also go indoors,” he said.
“But you need game time so we’re talking to local teams and if there are any breaks in the weather midweek we can try and get friendlies to fill in the gaps. We’ll keep ourselves busy anyway.”
Kirkwood said that training will go ahead tomorrow despite the fact that a few players will be doing extra shifts at work ahead of Christmas.
Afterwards, Kirkwood plans to take in a local derby game to see if there is any local talent that could bolster the ranks of Academy. “Myself and Tichie [Richard Hughes, assistant manager] will take in the Halkirk v Thurso game and see if there is anything going about there,” he said.
“We’ll just have a look and keep an eye out for local footballing talent.”
The local Christmas and New Year derbies have been changed to Friday night kick-offs.
The Brora Rangers v Wick Academy match scheduled for Christmas Eve will now be played on Friday, December 23, with an 8pm kick-off.
The Wick Academy v Brora Rangers match scheduled to be played on Hogmanay will now take place on Friday, December 30, also with an 8pm start.
