Wick revel in role as underdogs
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Formartine United 1
Wick Academy 2
“CAN we play the big boys every week?” That must be the mantra at Scorries HQ as Academy again basked in the underdog role on Saturday.
Tom McKenna’s men travelled to North Lodge Park with many expecting Wick to come off second best against Formartine United.
After all, the Pitmedden side were top of the league and had resumed a winning run from last season and stretched it to 21 games in a row.
Given how abject Academy were on their own patch against Deveronvale the previous week, you would have been forgiven had you written this one off in light of United’s seemingly unbreakable purple patch.
But, as McKenna stated last week, all winning runs in football come to an end and if anyone was to break Formartine’s, it might as well be Academy.
And break it they did with a 2-1 win that once again had the Scorries notching up a fine result and adding another highly fancied scalp to their collection.
Some not-so-fancied ones would be much welcomed by fans as Academy over the past year have had a frustrating habit of drawing or losing games that they’d be expected to win but upsetting top teams when they are underdogs.
Some will say Academy rode their luck – and maybe they did. However, as Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “I know he’s a good general, but is he lucky?” – fortune smiles on those who take advantage of it.
Andy Greig had given Formartine the lead on 21 minutes with a superb strike from just inside the box.
The Scorries, though, came out fighting after half-time and levelled on the hour thanks to Gordy MacNab. Nine minutes later they were ahead with a superb strike from Jack Henry.
A stunned United tried to retrieve the situation only for Wick keeper Sean McCarthy to be in inspired form with a number of saves.
A delighted McKenna said: “This was a fantastic result and I’m proud of the lads for sticking to their task. We rode our luck at times. They hit the woodwork, Sean made a number of saves and our defence put their bodies on the line.
“Formartine dominated possession but we got the statistic that matters – we scored more goals.
“Seeing us get a win like this makes the Deveronvale defeat even worse. Seeing how hard we worked and taking our chances when they came makes you wonder why we couldn’t do that the week before.”
Wick are now eighth and three points away from new league leaders Fraserburgh.
McKenna added: “I’m not entertaining any title talk. Nice though it is to beat teams like Formartine, to be considered for that you need more consistency.”
