Scorries undone by Vale keeper’s stunning efforts
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ONE name was on everyone’s lips after Deveronvale beat Wick Academy 2-0 at Princess Royal Park on Saturday.
That name belonged to 24-year-old local boy James Blanchard who put on a heroic show between the sticks for Vale.
His man-of-the-match-winning performance was the talk of the terraces after he denied Academy a chance to progress in their first game of the year, making it three in a row for Vale.
Academy manager Davie Kirkwood was unavailable for comment this week, but club secretary Alan Farquhar told the Caithness Courier that he was surprised by the final scoreline after watching a good first-half performance from the Scorries.
“The first 60 minutes of the game it was all Academy,” he said. “I’ve never seen a top Highland League club like Deveronvale so parked into their own half.
“We totally pinned them in, and if it wasn’t for their keeper we would have been up at half-time.”
Mr Farquhar said was only a few momentary lapses in the second half that let Deveronvale walk away with the spoils.
The secretary added that the three-week break due to poor pitch conditions over the festive season had not helped matters.
“Maybe if we hadn’t gone three weeks without a match then our strikers might have been a bit sharper,” he said.
“But you can’t take it away from our players who put the shots goal bound – their keeper was just unbelievable. The fact that he got man of the match tells you a lot.”
Mr Farquhar added: “We just can’t believe we came out of the game with nothing.”
Blanchard was also on Deveronvale manager Scott Anderson’s mind.
“Wick are one of the best passing sides we have come across this season and if it wasn’t for our goalkeeper it might have been different,” he said.
“But that’s what you need, different players stepping up every week and certainly on Saturday it was our keeper.”
Anderson said Wick dominated the first half and could only thank Blanchard for keeping the visitors’ scoreline to nought. “We felt the second half, at least the last 35 minutes, we pretty much dominated,” said Anderson.
“What we didn’t manage to do in the first half was play at a pace. But we managed to do that in the last half hour.”
The victory makes it three successful games on the bounce for the Banffshire outfit and Anderson said he now hopes to make a run of it.
“I’m very pleased as I knew it was going to be a difficult game,” he added.
“Wick are on the up so we’re delighted to have secured six points against them this season.”
