Scorries left to ponder on five goal rout
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
IT was a game where everything went wrong but on Saturday it will be put right, said assistant manager Richard Hughes in the wake of Wick Academy’s humiliating 5-0 defeat against Nairn County.
For the first time in 12 months the Scorries conceded five goals in a match and were comprehensively played off the park.
Manager Davie Kirkwood was quoted as saying the least said about the performance the better and a training session was organised for Monday night to examine what went wrong.
But Hughes said that they will be doing their homework to make sure a repeat performance doesn’t happen against Deveronvale in the Breedon Aggregates Highland League Cup on Saturday.
"There’s not much we can say about what happened at Station Park except that it was not a good result for us," he said.
"It’s hard to say what exactly happened to the team, but a discussion was arranged for Monday night to find out why we lost so heavily.
"It was extremely disappointing for us, especially since we’ve been on such a good run of results.
"But the good thing about football is that you’ve always got the following Saturday to bounce back and put things right. The cup will give us a chance to forget the league result and look at some other players who may feature in the final stage of the season.
"We’ve only one away game left in the league with seven to play at home and we will be looking to make the most of that."
Nairn County manager Les Fridge said that his team’s five-star performance was just what it needed as the last couple of months has seen his side’s league position badly affected by postponements and cup matches.
Victory in Nairn’s five games in hand will leave them only three points behind league leaders Cove Rangers.
The manager said that the thought of playing two games a week leaves them a difficult task in their bid to bring the title to Station Park for the first time since 1976, but he is confident it can be done.
"It’s games we need at this stage of the season, that’s really only our third game in three months," he said.
"So it was very pleasing after tweaking the team around slightly to win so comfortably.
"We knew what Wick would bring to the table, stand off them and they punish you and they are a team that counterattack very well.
"So we pressed the ball high, won the ball back in good areas and the passing and movement was great.
"The players have suffered the indignity, through no fault of their own, of going from third to 11th before this fixture due to not playing.
"Connor Gethins’ first two goals were worthy of winning any game, he struck well into corners and rounded off with a header for his hat-trick.
"But I stress that games are what we need and we really looked at our best against Academy."
