Wick Academy 2012/13: 'We were a top team, it's as simple as that'
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It was the season Wick Academy set a Highland League record by winning all 17 of their home games. They came agonisingly close to lifting the title, only to finish four points behind champions Cove Rangers, and a further chance of silverware eluded them as they lost to Nairn County after extra time in the North of Scotland Cup final.
Yet that 2012/13 campaign remains a memorable one for Wick supporters who saw their exciting, attack-minded team achieve an unprecedented 100 per cent league record at Harmsworth Park and rack up more than a century of goals across the campaign as a whole.
Ten years on, some of the key players from that side have been reflecting on the highs and lows of 2012/13 with a feeling of pride at the levels they reached but also a sense of regret that they ended up empty-handed.
Academy began the season with Davie Kirkwood in charge. After his sudden departure, Richard Hughes took over as caretaker manager and became Barry Wilson's assistant when the former Caley Thistle winger was appointed as boss in October.
Ultimately, dropped points in away games would prove costly – notably a defeat and a draw against Clachnacuddin and Formartine United respectively in the space of four days in March. Arguably the pivotal result was a 3-1 defeat at Cove in November; if Academy had won that day, and if all other results had remained the same, the Scorries would have been champions.
Gary Manson, the club's longest-serving player, who has been manager since 2020, said: “You look back with mixed emotions, but probably the overriding emotion is a tinge of disappointment. To come so close, four points from the top of the table...
“That season we were beaten in the North of Scotland Cup final as well, so we were so close to winning a cup and winning the league, and to come away with nothing was obviously a disappointment.
“But you've got to remember that we did incredibly well. We went toe-to-toe with Aberdeenshire teams that had huge budgets and a much bigger pool of players to pick from. When you take a step back and reflect on it, it was an incredible season and one that we should be rightly proud of.
“I remember we went down to Clach on a Wednesday night and got beaten [1-0] and then the Saturday straight after that we went down to Formartine and were 3-0 up within about 20 minutes. Davie Allan scored a hat-trick.
"We thought we were going to coast to an easy win but they pegged us back, I'm afraid. Those two games really cost us.
“But that squad was just like the perfect storm. It had everything. It had pace, it had power, it had height, it had defensive qualities, it had attacking qualities... it just had everything.
“It felt like the core of the squad, 14 or 15 players, were there every single Saturday, so that consistency of selection must have been a joy for Kirky and Barry.
“For two or three years, opposition managers could probably pick our team before they saw us rolling up on a Saturday. The only people that were swapping back and fore were Lukasz [Geruzel] and Chuckie [Gary Weir] at number nine.
"We had about 14 or 15 players that played about 30-odd games that season, and that's quite rare for a Wick team.”
Richard Macadie was a regular scorer from midfield that season and he famously hit five in a 7-0 romp at Buckie.
“Looking back, it is just pure frustration," said Macadie, the club's record marksman and still a first-team regular.
“Barry had taken over and he was just all-out attack. He wasn't interested in defending, all he was interested in was attack – that's the type of player he was. And it suited us.
“We were on the rise. We were coming to a point where everybody was at the peak of their powers.
“There were no young players or old players, everybody was about the same. We were a top team, it's as simple as that.
“You had options up front. It was so creative and so fast. We scored 101 [league] goals that season.
“The boys at the back were absolute warriors, they were fighters – they must have been so intimidating to play against. They were all quality, and playing against them must have been a nightmare.
“We'd had two or three seasons together and we were progressing all the time. Every team goes up and down at times, and that was just our time to go up.”
Davie Allan, the long-serving forward who is working his way back to fitness after a serious knee injury a year ago, said: “We just had a good team and we were a good age, a lot of us. Some of us were at the peak of our careers at that time and it all just came together.
“We had some really good attacking players and we scored a lot of goals but we had a good defence as well. It was a good mix of a team.
“We had played together for quite a few years by that point so we all had a good understanding of what everybody did.
“In all honesty, we probably didn't realise how close we were at the time. Every game we went into, we thought we had a good chance of winning.
“We were always a team that was known for playing football, playing on the deck. Harmsworth Park gets a bit messy during the winter and is not the best surface, and you'd think that wouldn't have suited us, so it's probably even more impressive in that sense – we had to slightly adapt our game to win those games and we still managed to do it, so it was a good achievement.
“In the home games we quite often just went for it. Kirky and Barry were quite keen on us attacking. It was enjoyable to play in.
“And we were getting good crowds back then too. It does make a difference when you've got a bigger crowd there.”
Striker Gary Weir, who quit Highland League football at the end of the 2016/17 season, recalled: “Everyone got on. We were all at an age where we were best mates off the park – and to be honest we still are, the core group of that team.
"The laugh off the pitch was the best it has ever been. The bus trips home over the years for Academy were a brilliant laugh.
"People say the travelling for away games must be pretty tough, but we all looked forward to that – it was a night out with our friends after playing a game of football.
"I think that's important. If a team is not gelling well then you don't have that side of things.
"Something I learned that year was how big momentum can be in football. Obviously it can go both ways – when the chips are down, it's hard to break that.
"But when you've got momentum and you can keep it going, I would say it's one of the most important things about football. That's something that we had that season.
"I don't remember a joyful feeling at the end of that season after winning every home game. I just remember that we were so close to winning the league."
Michael Gray was first-choice goalkeeper, although James More made regular appearances in the latter part of the season. Typically the defence would feature Grant Steven, Michael "Joe" Steven, Alan Farquhar and Gary Manson, with Craig Shearer and James Pickles competing for midfield places alongside Stevie Cunningham, Richard Macadie and Sam Mackay, while up front there would be Davie Allan partnered by Lukasz Geruzel or Gary Weir. Other squad members that season were Shaun Sinclair, Ross Allan, Graham Bayne, Bryan McKiddie, Stewart Ross and Alan Hughes.
Wick Academy's Highland League results from 2012/13 (home games in bold)
4/8/12 Strathspey (A) W 4 -1 (Mackay, Geruzel, Allan 2)
11/8/12 Buckie Thistle (H) W 2-1 (Geruzel, Allan)
18/8/12 Deveronvale (A) L 0-6
1/9/12 Turriff United (A) L 3-4 (Mackay, Weir 2)
8/9/12 Lossiemouth (H) W 5-3 (o.g., Allan, Weir, M Steven, Macadie)
15/9/12 Rothes (A) W 4-0 (Weir 2, Macadie, Mackay)
22/9/12 Fraserburgh (H) W 4-1 (Manson, Weir, Pickles, Macadie)
13/10/12 Huntly (A) W 3-2 (Weir, Mackay, Macadie)
27/10/12 Fort William (A) W 3-0 (Allan 2, Geruzel)
3/11/12 Keith (H) W 5-1 (Weir, Macadie 3, o.g.)
10/11/12 Forres Mechanics (A) L 1-4 (o.g.)
17/11/12 Formartine United (H) W 3-1 (Macadie, Weir, Geruzel)
24/11/12 Cove Rangers (A) L 1-3 (Allan)
8/12/12 Buckie Thistle (A) W 7-0 (Macadie 5, Cunningham, Geruzel)
29/12/12 Brora Rangers (H) W 3-0 (Geruzel 2, Mackay)
5/1/13 Turriff United (H) 6-2 (Mackay 2, Macadie, Geruzel 2, Bayne)
12/1/13 Lossiemouth (A) W 4-0 (Allan, Macadie 2, Bayne)
19/1/13 Rothes (H) W 5-0 (Geruzel 2, Macadie 3)
2/2/13 Inverurie Locos (H) W 1-0 (Weir)
9/2/13 Nairn County (A) L 2-3 (Geruzel, Cunningham)
27/2/13 Clachnacuddin (H) W 4-0 (Weir, Geruzel 3)
2/3/13 Fort William (H) W 1-0 (Weir)
6/3/13 Brora Rangers (A) L 0-5
9/3/13 Keith (A) W 6-1 (Geruzel 2, Cunningham, Macadie, M Steven, Allan)
23/3/13 Forres Mechanics (H) W 3-1 (Macadie, Weir, Cunningham)
27/3/13 Clachnacuddin (A) 0-1
30/3/13 Formartine United (A) D 3-3 (Allan 3)
6/4/13 Cove Rangers (H) W 2-1 (Weir, Macadie)
13/4/13 Inverurie Locos (A) L 0-2
20/4/13 Fraserburgh (A) W 3-1 (Geruzel 2, Allan)
4/5/13 Huntly (H) W 4-0 (Macadie, Geruzel 2, Mackay)
8/5/13 Nairn County (H) W 1-0 (Weir)
11/5/13 Strathspey (H) W 4-0 (Mackay 2, o.g., Macadie)
18/5/13 Deveronvale (H) W 4-1 (Weir, Mackay, Allan 2)
