Wick Academy are set for Wednesday night north derby Highland League clash
GARY MANSON says he is confident Wick Academy can take something from Brora Rangers when the two teams meet in the Highland League at Dudgeon Park on Wednesday night.
The manager says his team took a lot of confidence from their 1-0 North of Scotland Cup quarter final defeat to Brora earlier this month when Colin Williamson scored in the 93rd minute.
His team also put in a battling defensive performance when they lost 1-0 to league leaders Brechin City at Dudgeon Park on Saturday.
Scott Logan scored the only goal of the game which gave Brechin all three points as Wick put in a determined effort to get back into the match.
Now the Scorries head to Sutherland for the far north derby and Manson says his team have shown they are good enough defensively to compete with the top teams in the league.
If they can find the net, Manson thinks they can return to Caithness with a result.
He said: “We should have drawn in regular time against Brora when they won the quarter final with a 93rd minute goal.
“In that cup tie, we had the best three chances in the game.
“We had three opportunities where we were one on one with the goalkeeper. If we can replicate the defensive side that we showed against them in that game and what we did against Brechin we’re in with a shout. If we can keep the backdoor closed, it takes one moment to score and turn the game in our favour. We will look to come up the road with some points.
“We have had a tough start, we have played Brechin twice, Buckie away, Brora away, Fraserburgh at home, Banks O’Dee at home. We have played all of the top teams and we are only in September. It has been a reasonably tough start, but we have shown we can defend well against the top teams.
“We will go in with the same gameplan by being hard to beat and see what we can do on the break.”
Gordon Macnab, Marc Macgregor and Davie Allan should be available for Wednesday’s clash at Brora, but Rob Maclean and Owen Rendall are unavailable for selection.
Manson says it was a good performance against Brechin City considering they were missing several players at Glebe Park.
He said: “We were missing six or seven players who could have easily started for us. So to go down there and give a good account of ourselves with a depleted squad I was reasonably pleased.
“The game went as I thought it would, as they dominated possession and have most of the territory and we would hit them on the counter attack and that is how it panned out.
“Obviously you are never happy to come away with a defeat. But there are ways of being defeated and we will take a lot of positives from the game.
“I wouldn’t say we had an abundance of chances, we had a goal disallowed for offside but apart from that we had half chances.
“We were looking to pick and choose when we could counter attack. Their goal was a bit fortuitous. When you go down there with a full squad you need things to go your way. But when you go down with six or seven, you need everything to go your way.”
