‘We’re fighting fit and raring to go’ says Kirkwood
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ATTACK is the best form of defence, according to Wick Academy manager Davie Kirkwood as he prepares for tomorrow’s trip to Princess Royal Park to take on Deveronvale.
The Scorries skipper has high hopes for the game after a three-week lay-off due to adverse weather conditions over the festive period. He hopes players’ pent-up energy will make for an explosive start to 2012 for his team.
“We’ll make them go on the back foot and make them try and combat us,” he said.
“We are fighting fit and raring to go. It’s been three weeks since our last game so I think the players will be excited – they’ll be wanting to run off that Christmas turkey.”
Since there hasn’t been a game since the Brora match just before Christmas the squad has had to settle for training at weekends.
However, even that was affected last Saturday at the all-weather pitch in Wick. “As we walked out onto the AstroTurf an almighty wind hit us with sleet and snow which drove us back inside,” he said. “But we got another session under our belt anyway.”
There will be no retreat tomorrow as the game looks set to go ahead and Kirkwood has already formed his strategy.
“I drove down to Brora to take in the Deveronvale game last Saturday,” he said.
“We’ve got a plan in place now that I’ve seen what they can do with setpieces and the way they play and how they are setup. Hopefully we’ll get it right on Saturday.”
Kirkwood has pinpointed forwards Mike McKenzie, Scott Fraser and Graeme Rodger as ones to watch out for. He has also highlighted the team’s pacey wing work as a potential threat.
The manager just hopes the spirit his team showed before the Christmas break is still there. “Hopefully the three-week break won’t have spoiled the run that we were on,” he said. “And over the next few weeks I don’t see why we can’t get a few points against teams we didn’t do so well against earlier in the season. That should help get us in a more comfortable position.”
Team selection has not been hampered by injuries apart from the still recovering Martin Gunn who is only a couple of weeks away from fitness. Goalkeeper James More is not far behind him in returning for selection.
Deveronvale’s manager, Scott Anderson, welcomes the Scorries on a high after two successive victories.
A 6-3 victory over Brora has put Vale back on the right track and, although the team conceded three, Anderson is happy to note every one of his side’s goals came from a different player, in tricky conditions. “We’re happy, obviously, as we’ve had two good results in the last few games – we’ve beaten Buckie and taken a good win up at Brora last weekend,” he said.
“We feel we’ve turned a corner after being up and down for the first part of the season. We just want to continue that and get ourselves on a run to get into the mix at the top.”
In order to catch up with the league leaders the Banffshire outfit will first have to get through Academy.
Anderson said he will be taking an aggressive attacking approach to the fixture.
“We know it’s going to be difficult – Wick are certainly one of the best attacking teams in the league,” he said.
“We got a result earlier in the season up in Wick but it could’ve easily gone either way. We’ll need to be at our best.”
He added: “We’ll set up to be attacking and at the same time we know Wick’s strengths so we will do our best to deal with that.”
The Banff boss will have a full squad to choose from, with Fraser and Rodger both returning from suspension and Michele Lombardi back in the fold.
