Wick Academy 3
Forres Mech 2
League

Match Report

Academy broke several club records today in their 3-2 win over Forres Mechanics. In recording their 7th straight league win, something never achieved before, they have also racked up their highest ever points total since joining the league, currently sitting on 39 points. The highest previous total was 38 achieved in season 1995/96. The win takes the Scorries to 6th place in the league, but teams around have games in hand so there is a lot of football still to be played before the final league position will be known.

Academy started the game with 4 key players missing; Gary Manson, Craig Shearer, Nigel MacKenzie and Alex Lamb, but co-managers Hughes and Munro drafted in Blair Duncan and Iain Innes to bolster the squad. Both currently play for Bunhillidh Thistle, but started the game a few weeks ago against us playing for Brora.

The games started with an early shout for an Academy penalty, as David Allan showed the Forres defence a clean pair of heels with a burst of speed, and looked to have been brought down in the box. Referee Fraser however wasn't interested.

Forres had a few half-chances when Milne first headed over the bar from a Youngson cross, and Fraser Bremner then whistled a 20 yard shot just wide of Mores's left hand post.

With 14 hour played Academy then had the ball in the back of the net when McKiddie slipped in Weir, who crossed for Allan to slot home, but the goal didn't stand.

In the 27th minute Cowie created a great chance as he drove up the right wing before crossing to Weir in the middle of the box but his shot went straight to keeper Knight.

6 minutes later Cowie popped up on the opposite wing and whipped in another great cross that Weir managed to get his head to but he couldn't direct it on target.

With 40 minutes on the clock Academy almost took the lead. McKiddie slipped a neat pass to Cunningham at the edge of the Forres box. Cunningham dipped a shoulder, turned his man and let rip with a powerful shot but it whistled inches past the outside of the left hand post.

Right on the stroke of half-time Academy opened the scoring. Cunningham set Allan off up the wing. He drove to the bye-line before cutting the ball back across the face of goal where Macadie was on-hand to stick it home into an empty net.

1 - 0

Half Time 1 - 0

Academy flew out of the blocks at the start of the second half and within the first minute they almost doubled their lead. Macadie went clear into the Forres box and hesitated to set himself to have a shot on target, and that gave the Forres defence just enough time to close him out.

Minutes later Cowie went on yet another run up the wing, beating his man for dead before squaring to Allan in the middle of the box, but he got semi-tangled up with the ball and scuffed his effort straight at keeper Knight.

Just as it looked as if the Scorries would rue this missed chance Weir set the Hamsworth Park on fire with a great individual goal. He picked the ball up 40 yards from goal and charged at the Forres back line. He marched through 5 challenges as the Forres defenders tried to take him down, and pull him back, but he shrugged them all off, got into the box and finished with some style dinking the ball over keeper Knight.

2 - 0

Academy should have made it 3 minutes later when Weir fed in Cunningham and he spotted Knight off his line and chipped the ball over his head, but it agonisingly smacked back off the cross-bar. Macadie followed up and looked certain to score, but in an amazing goal-line scramble the keeper managed to get back onto his line and block his effort. Macadie got a head knock in the process, but after some treatment was able to continue.

In the 66th minute Weir capped his man of the match performance with a free-kick that Cristiano Ronaldo would have been proud off. The free kick he won to be fair to Forres seemed a tad soft, but Weir made the most of it as from 35 yards he hit a thunder-bolt what screamed into the top right hand corner of Knight's net with the keeper grasping at the vapour-trail that must have been left behind the ball.

3 - 0

So Academy 3-up and coasting, game over? Not a chance. Gordon Winton took on super-sub Kenny Hendry and within 10 minutes of coming on the pulled Forres right back into the game. Live-wire Ricky Wardrop drove up the right wing and crossed into the box. The ball skidded off the greasy surface and More couldn't hold onto it. Hendry snapped up the loose ball and fired it home from 4 yards out.

3 - 1

This gave Forres a sniff at a fight back and they started to really come in to the game. Minutes after the goal they forced a corner and the six foot plus striker Ryan Green soared above the Academy defence to get his head on the ball, but it went high of target.

Forres continued to pressure and in the last minute they set-up a nail-biting period of extra time as they snatched another goal back, again coming from a corner-kick. Substitute Ross Duncan drove the corner-kick to the Academy back post. The Scorries failed to clear their lines and the ball fell to Hendry and he volleyed it into the ground. The ball bounced back up and looped over the top of More and into the net.

3 - 2

Referee Fraser played almost 7 minutes of extra time, but Academy managed to keep possession and ran out the clock.

Full Time 3 - 2

Academy now travel to Nairn next Saturday on what will be another key game in deciding which league position we'll end up in, and a chance to break the 40 point mark for the first time in the club's history.

Weir's two goals today took his league goals total to 10, and his goals in all matches total to 18. He is now in second place in the League goal-scoring charts for all competitions, only one goal behind the current leader Jamie Watt of Cove Rangers.

Match report written by John Briskham