Wick aim to end season on a high
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GOING toe to toe is the Scorries’ plan for tomorrow as they aim to end their Highland League season with a bang.
Wick Academy travel to Formartine United for the final game of a campaign that started with an alarming dip but has since recovered under the new management of Tom McKenna.
Mid-table respectability looks like being the final outcome in terms of league position, but when the Gordon Connelly era came to an end earlier in the season many felt such a finish could be out of reach.
McKenna steadied the ship and a run that included just one defeat in 16 league games helped propel Wick to respectability.
One feature has been performances against sides higher up the league in which Wick have fronted up and more often than not being rewarded with a point or three.
So, as McKenna insists, parking the bus against Formartine – who are currently scoring goals for fun – will not be an option.
The Wick boss said: “This season when we’ve gone toe to toe with teams, we’ve found that we’ve had our best success in terms of results and performances.
“They’ll be looking to throw everything at us because they know a win will see them go above Inverurie Locos into second spot – a position that will give them entry into the Scottish League Cup next season.
“We usually do take the opposition into consideration when planning our tactics but, given our hands are tied with numbers, we’ll be fronting up and looking to give a good performance.”
With various fixture postponements, games being rearranged, injuries and suspensions, McKenna has had his work cut out in trying a get a team and subs’ bench in place for each game in recent weeks.
The bad weather from earlier in the year has meant that the Highland League has overlapped with the beginning of the Caithness Amateur Football Association summer league season with a number of Academy players having to juggle loyalties in order to keep both Wick and their respective summer clubs happy.
McKenna added: “The summer league situation is an unfortunate circumstance that we’ve had to deal with. I think there were six Academy players in action for other teams on Tuesday night.
“Thankfully for us, we’ve got those boys available for Saturday but my worries about getting a team together to go down to Formartine lie elsewhere.
“Michael Steven is out following his red card against Cove. Craig Gunn is also suspended for this one, not to mention that both Sam Mackay and Alan Farquhar are struggling with injuries, so it might be touch and go on whether or not they’ll make it.
“So numbers aren’t great. We’ve had Gary Weir come out of retirement to help out in the last two games but he has other commitments this weekend so we don’t have him to fall back on.
“Hopefully we can scratch something together and put in a performance that gives us a nice ending to the season.”
