Cove Rangers 3
Wick Academy 1
HL Cup (Semi Final)

Match Report

Academy’s Highland League Cup dream may be over for another season but they gave a good account of themselves on their first visit to Cove’s Balmoral Stadium.
Ultimately the clinical finishing of the league’s top scorer Mitch Megginson was the difference between the sides in Saturday’s semi final.
Cove had an early chance with a corner from Daniel Park which Jordon Brown headed powerfully towards goal but Sam Mackay was on the line to head it away.
Gordon MacNab caused a scare when he broke clear but the Cove defenders quickly recovered to chase him down, MacNab then won a corner on the left and Andy Hardwick’s header also created momentary panic before it was scrambled away.
Then a double whammy just after the half-hour mark put Cove in charge.
Megginson ran up the Cove right onto a clever flick from Brown and rifled the ball into the far corner.
Two minutes later Jamie Masson seized on a rebound to fire the ball into the net from 15 yards.
Five minutes into the second half Megginson scored again, this time after cutting in from the left.
That appeared to be game over but three minutes later Sam Mackay fired low into the bottom corner from the edge of the box to give Academy a lifeline.
Within a couple of minutes former Academy favourite Grant Campbell unleashed a 25-yard effort which was too hot to handle for Gordon Clark. The keeper parried it and Danny Mackay completed the clearance. Academy enjoyed a good spell around the hour mark. A shot by MacNab was pushed away and just eluded substitute Marc Macgregor in the six-yard box.
Macgregor fired across goal to MacNab who could not control it quickly enough. Martin Scott crossed from the Cove right and from 10 yards Megginson scorned the chance of a hat trick by volleying just over the bar.
Academy hadn’t given up but time was running out. MacNab pulled a shot wide and Gary Manson had a drive saved by Stuart McKenzie.

Click on the link below to read a newspaper report for this match.

Match report written by Caithness Courier - Wed, March 20, 2019.

Newspaper extract from Caithness Courier - 20th March 2019.