Scorries' dressing room a glum place to be
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MANAGER Tom McKenna admitted morale is low in the Wick Academy dressing room following Saturday's 2-0 home defeat to Fraserburgh.
The Scorries have had just one victory in their last eight outings and a sense of dejection seems to be taking root among the players.
A lengthy injury list has meant that the team has had to compensate for a number of key personnel being missing with some having to play out of position.
The defeat to Broch alone would be disappointing but for long periods of the second period Wick seemed powerless to get out of their own half.
And McKenna admitted that the result and performance made the changing a glum place to be.
"I was trying to cheer the boys up in the dressing room because they were really deflated," he said. "We have experienced players missing and you're asking players to play out of position in unnatural roles.
Every time we got the ball up the field it came straight back at us.
"I thought we did well but without being effective. You can't fault their effort. I thought there wasn't much between the teams in the first half.
"We just conceded a goal at a bad time [four minutes before half-time] and your team talk changes having gone a goal down.
"It seemed as if the ball has just floated along and dropped to one of their players. He took his chance and that came at a bad time for us.
"In the second half, the lads got tired and were heavy-legged. Some players have just been coming back to training from injury so that's understandable.
"We just defended for the second half. Every time we got the ball up the field it came straight back at us. That is where Marc Macgregor is missed. We need someone to hold the ball up and draw other players into attack.
"Things are just not going right for us. The lads are deflated. We've a lot of injuries – Craig Gunn being the latest with a groin injury.
"The physio phoned me the night before the game and said 'I wouldn't play Craig' and after speaking to him, he felt the same."
Fraserburgh boss Mark Cowie praised his defence for keeping Wick at bay in order to set up the platform for his side's victory.
He said: "We were not at our best but we were dangerous on the break. Wick caused some problems for us during that first half.
"The second half was much better. We didn't let them out of their half every time they tried to break out.
"We were on top of them and we defended well. When you come up here and keep a clean sheet, you give yourself a great chance.
"There were not too many chances, to be fair, but we took two of them and we're pleased to come away with the win."
