Wick Academy aiming to make life difficult for Highland League champions
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Wick Academy will be determined to make life as difficult as possible for Highland League champions Brechin City when the teams meet at Glebe Park on Saturday.
The Scorries have been boosted by back-to-back home victories over Strathspey Thistle and Lossiemouth, but an away match against Brechin – who are one point clear at the top as they seek a second successive title – offers an altogether different challenge.
From a Wick perspective, there are painful memories of the corresponding fixture in March last year when an under-strength Academy side suffered a 10-0 annihilation – their heaviest defeat as a Highland League club.
However, manager Gary Manson said there were "mitigating circumstances" on that occasion and he is sure the team will "make a better fist of it" this time.
"When you go away to the league champions and the team currently at the top of the table, you don't want to get ahead of yourself," Manson said. "First and foremost you just want to be competitive and then see where that takes you in the game.
"Last year it was just a freak result that shouldn't really happen. There were certainly mitigating circumstances that you could point towards.
"In Saturday's team there might only be three players who played in that game last year, so it shouldn't affect them too badly.
"We'll go down and try to make it as difficult as we can for them and then try to nick something if we can."
Brechin, managed by Gavin Price, will be looking to bounce back from last weekend's 3-2 home defeat to fellow title contenders Buckie Thistle.
Manson pointed out: "We went down to Buckie [in November] and we gave them a right good game. They ran out winners [5-2] after we got a man wrongly sent off, but up until that red card we were right in the game.
"We can go away to these places and perform reasonably well. We'll just need to take that into Saturday's game.
"We don't want to make bold statements that we're going to do this and do that – we're just going to go down and make it as hard for them as we possibly can, try and be competitive, and see where that takes us."
Orkney-based defender Owen Rendall will return to the Wick squad.
"We'll be going down quite strong," Manson said. "We'll be taking a reasonable size of squad with us, which is something that we certainly didn't have last year when we went there.
"Hopefully we will make a better fist of it."
It's the first of three tough-looking games for Academy in an eight-day spell. They meet Brora Rangers at home on Wednesday night and then Formartine United, also at home, on Saturday, March 2.
Academy, who are 14th in the table, have earned all but one of their 19 points at Harmsworth Park.
"I said to the boys, I think we've proved so far this season, certainly at home, that we can take points off the teams in the bottom half of the table," Manson said.
"We've taken points off Deveronvale, Huntly, Rothes, we've beaten Clachnacuddin, Forres, Inverurie, Strathspey Thistle and Lossiemouth, at home. Now the challenge for the rest of the season is go and prove that we can take points off the teams in the top half of the table and prove that we can take points away from home.
"It's not like we're just running down to the end of the season now. We do have these targets and goals to aim for in the rest of the season.
"Obviously it's a tough ask on Saturday but it would be a great place to start. We'll see what we can do."
Academy were comfortable 3-0 winners against Lossiemouth last Saturday with goals from Gary Pullen and Kyle Henderson either side of an own goal by Jared Kennedy.
Highland League results from Wednesday: Brora Rangers 3, Lossiemouth 2; Buckie Thistle 1, Fraserburgh 0 (at Grant Park, Lossiemouth); Formartine United 5, Nairn County 1; Keith 1, Forres Mechanics 1.
Highland League fixtures for Saturday, February 24: Banks O' Dee v Brora Rangers; Brechin City v Wick Academy; Buckie Thistle v Clachnacuddin (at Grant Park, Lossiemouth); Formartine United v Lossiemouth; Fraserburgh v Nairn County; Huntly v Strathspey Thistle; Inverurie Locos v Forres Mechanics; Keith v Rothes; Turriff United v Deveronvale.
