Wick Academy will aim to be 'best of the rest' in second half of Highland League season
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A place in the top eight of the Highland League will be the target for Wick Academy in the second half of the 2021/22 campaign.
The Scorries moved into the top half of the table after last weekend's fine 3-2 victory away to Clachnacuddin, and player/manager Gary Manson reckons an eighth-place finish is a realistic aim.
Academy had to wait until the start of October for their first league win this season, a 3-1 success against Fort William, after a frustrating series of six score draws and three defeats in their opening nine fixtures.
They are now sitting in ninth place after collecting 12 points from a possible 15 since losing to Inverurie at the start of November.
Formartine United occupy seventh spot and there is a sizeable gap between the Pitmedden side and Nairn County, who are two points better off than Wick having played one game more.
“I'm pleased with the last four or five weeks," Manson said after Saturday's victory at Grant Street Park, where the visitors came back from a two-goal deficit to secure all three points.
“I think at the start of the season we were playing quite well, we just weren't getting the breaks – and that kind of evens itself out over the course of a season, so we might be benefiting from that now."
Manson pointed out that the winning goal against Clach, scored by Steven Anderson, was an example of a decision that on another day might have gone against Academy.
“I couldn't really see it from my position on the pitch, but supposedly Ando was quite close to being offside, if he wasn't offside, for the third goal – but it stood," Manson said. "Maybe that's just a sign of us getting the breaks now – maybe earlier on in the season that would have been flagged offside and we would have drawn the game.
“So yes, they certainly even themselves out over the course of the season.
“But overall we should be looking to be the best of the rest after the top seven at this present moment. That's where this current squad is because it has gone through a fair old transition over the last year or so, or the last two years maybe.
“There's a lot of seasoned, experienced Highland League players that have either moved on or are injured or unavailable through one reason or another, and there's a lot of new young boys coming through.
“So at this present moment I would say where we are in the league table is probably a reflection of this squad. But for the young boys coming through it'll be a great learning curve for them this season and should stand us in really good stead in the next few years.
“After the start we had, I would certainly say the aim is now to finish eighth and I fully expect us to do that if we carry on the form that we're showing at the moment.
“That is certainly the aim, and you never know – if we do manage to go on a long run of winning games we might manage to catch seventh, but it'll be quite difficult to do that.
“Certainly after the start we made, drawing all those games, I think if we finished eighth on a decent points tally it could be viewed as a reasonably good season.”
Manson said he had not been unduly concerned that the Scorries had to wait so long to start winning matches.
“The performance levels were always good – we were creating lots of chances and playing some reasonably good football at that time as well," he said. "I was never overly concerned that the win might never come, because with the standard of players that we have in the squad, and the way we were playing, it was just a matter of time.
“Once you get a couple of wins on the bounce then momentum builds and that's four wins out of five games for us now. We just need to keep the positive factor going and the wins will come.”
Gordon MacNab and Mark Macadie got Wick's other goals on Saturday.
Academy are scheduled to play Lossiemouth at Harmsworth Park on Monday with a 3pm kick-off.
