Wick chairman praises manager Manson as countdown continues to new season
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Wick Academy chairman Pat Miller says he is delighted with the way Gary Manson has gone about his business since being named as the club's manager in the summer.
Thurso-based Manson (36), who has had a 20-year playing career at Academy, was appointed in July and declared that his main aim was to make the Scorries a force in the Highland League once more.
Recently he led the squad back into training ahead of the 2020/21 campaign which is due to kick off a month from now, subject to Scottish Government approval, against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Gary has gone about his business in a professional manner," Miller said. "He has assembled a backroom team that are all ex-Academy players and who have the club at heart.
“He's got the squad working for him, they all seem happy, and it's now a matter of getting them out on the park and seeing how they perform. I am eager to see them playing.
“No disrespect to previous managers, but Gary seems to know which button to press on each player. From speaking to him and watching them train, I would say it's like a new broom.”
The new season is due to kick off on Saturday, October 17, although that could yet be changed.
The league management committee has agreed a shortened format in which the 17 clubs will play each other only once, meaning eight home and eight away league fixtures for every team.
Academy, who do more travelling than any other Highland League club, will be hoping there is not an imbalance in the fixture list in terms of long away trips.
"We still want to finish as high up the league as possible," Miller said. "It's a goal that we set ourselves each season, and every manager is given that goal.
“This is going to be like a test year because it is only half a season. Because it's a 16-game league, it could make or break your season within the first five games.
"It's going to be interesting. In the first six weeks you'll know who are going to be the contenders and who are going to be the middle-range guys.
"But it's the luck of the draw: who do you get at home and who do you get away? That will be a big factor.
“We travel every second week anyway, but will we have to travel as many times to Aberdeenshire? There will probably be an argument with Rod Houston [Highland League secretary] and I feel sorry for the guy because he's going to be getting it from every angle.
"But if we have eight games away and five of them are in deepest Aberdeenshire I will be asking why."
Covid-19 casts a shadow over all pre-season preparations, though.
The cluster of cases that came to light recently in the Highland League town of Grantown-on-Spey was “too close for comfort” as far as Miller was concerned, and he admits he is dreading the thought of other outbreaks.
“My overall concern is that we have a duty of care to our team, to the players, to the officials and to the supporters. We want everybody to be as safe as possible," he said.
“We all want football to start, none more than me, but as long as we do it safely. If we're going to have football we're going to have to follow the protocols of the SFA and Nicola Sturgeon.”
Manson had been appointed as Wick co-manager along with Stewart Ross in February until the end of the 2019/20 campaign. In the event the pair had only one game in charge before the pandemic forced the suspension of all football.
In July, Manson agreed a long-term deal as manager in his own right. Earlier this month he revealed his backroom team of assistant manager Michael Gray, first-team coach Gordon McDonald and goalkeeping coach James More.
