Scorries will have to 'seriously buck up their ideas' after midweek loss at Keith
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Wick Academy manager Gary Manson says his players will have to "seriously buck up their ideas" if they are to rediscover the art of winning games.
The Scorries were beaten 2-0 on Wednesday's Highland League visit to Keith and will go into this weekend's home fixture against Deveronvale still seeking their first victory of the season.
On a frustrating night, Manson was shown the red card just after the half-hour mark following a remark directed at referee Liam Duncan and Ross Allan was given his marching orders late on after picking up a second yellow.
Both the Maroons' goals came from the penalty spot. Przemyslaw Nawrocki got the first, a couple of minutes before half-time, and Michael Selfridge scored the second with just under 10 minutes to go.
Manson will be looking for a big improvement when Deveronvale visit Harmsworth Park on Saturday.
“It's another game so it's another chance to get a win but I told the boys on Wednesday night that they'll need to seriously buck up their ideas if we're going to get that win," he said.
“It is becoming extremely frustrating going from game to game and still being unable to get that elusive win. The longer it drags on, it's very hard to break the bad habit.
“It's going to take a great deal of effort and desire and will to break that bad habit. I'm sure that once we do break it we'll go from strength to strength.”
The incident at Kynoch Park in which Manson fell foul of the referee came after a challenge on Academy's Alan Hughes.
The manager said: “Alan Hughes was driving up the right-hand side on quite a promising counter-attack and just got taken out. There were no ifs or buts, he just got taken out, and for some reason the referee gave the foul the other way.
“Every game gets videoed and I have still to watch that back. From memory it was as clear a foul for us as you could see, but he decided to give it to Keith.
“I just had a slight disagreement with him over that decision and he didn't even speak to me – he just came over and flashed the red card in my face, and that was the end of that.
“It was just a comment that I made in his direction and he obviously took extreme exception to it. He didn't even come and speak to me.
“But we can't blame the referee. It was just one of those nights, as has happened in quite a few games, where nothing seemed to go our way.
“I thought it was an evenly fought contest and it could have gone either way. No team dominated that game.
"We had a couple of chances and they had a couple of chances. They got lucky breaks with the penalties but apart from that there was nothing in the game.
“We didn't create an abundance of chances like we did in previous games."
League leaders Fraserburgh struck a stoppage-time penalty to deny Buckie Thistle victory and top spot in the Highland League on Wednesday night.
Gary Harris gave Broch a half-time lead but Sam Urquhart levelled and the Jags went in front late on through Kyle Macleod. Paul Campbell's penalty in the second minute of injury time maintained Fraserburgh's unbeaten start.
Brechin City came from behind to beat Formartine United 4-1 and go third, helped by a hat-trick from Kieran Inglis.
Brora Rangers' return to form continued with a 4-0 victory over Forres Mechanics, while Clach won 2-0 at Lossiemouth.
Turriff United recovered from being three down against Strathspey Thistle to secure a share of the points. It also finished 3-3 between Deveronvale and Huntly.
Inverurie Locos and Rothes drew 1-1.
Highland League fixtures for Saturday: Brechin City v Fort William; Brora Rangers v Nairn County; Clachnacuddin v Turriff United; Formartine United v Buckie Thistle; Forres Mechanics v Lossiemouth; Fraserburgh v Inverurie Locos; Huntly v Rothes; Strathspey Thistle v Keith; Wick Academy v Deveronvale.
