rob murray
27-Nov-09, 14:53
Wick may be most northerly club in Britain but they are ready to put themselves on map
Phil Gordon : The Times
(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/scotland/article6934093.ece#comment-have-your-say)
(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/scotland/article6934093.ece#none)
div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited {color:#06c;} It is little surprise that Wick is twinned with Klaksvik in the Faeroe Isles. Who else would understand all that beautiful isolation? Yet tomorrow, the Caithness town will be brimming with noise as its local team endeavours to put it on the football map.
Wick Academy is the most northerly club in British football but that geographical dislocation will be overlooked when many of the 7,300 population pack into Harmsworth Park for the Active Nation Scottish Cup third-round tie with Brechin City. The Highland League club do not seriously believe they are on the road to Hampden Park, however they are on the road to progress.
The 1,000 paying customers expected for the encounter is an attendance that would be envied by many teams in the Scottish Football League but Colin Stewart, the chairman, says that is a sign of the civic pride that Wick now has in its club. “Shops have been decorated all week in our black and white colours and there is a bit of cup fever,” Stewart said.
Those feelings had been dormant for many years. Although Wick Academy were founded in 1893, they played amateur football — apart from a couple of occasions when Aberdeen and Celtic came to Harmsworth in the 1930s for friendlies — until they were admitted to the Highland League in 1994. Wick were the whipping boys of the Highland scene for a few seasons but under the management duo of Ian Munro and Richard Hughes, the side finished fifth last term.
Wick Academy dabbled in the Scottish Cup in 2002 and 2008, but this season they knocked out Inverness Clachnacuddin and Girvan to set up a tie with Brechin, whose manager, Jim Duffy, actually led Dundee to the 2003 final against Rangers.
“Last season was the pinnacle of our club’s history because that was our highest-ever placing in the Highland League,” said Stewart, whose day job as a printer sees him entrusted with producing the match programme. “Ian and Richard also won the Highland League manager of the year — they shared the prize — and midfielder Richard Macadie was voted league Player of the Year.”
Macadie, like a number of the squad, came to Harmsworth after being released by Ross County and if that hints at the impressive youth academy at the Irn-Bru first division club — the most northerly in the SFL — it has also allowed Wick Academy to profit while also developing their own youth structure, despite a location just 20 miles away from John O’ Groats.
“In the early years of the Highland League, we used to rely on players from much further south, even down to Inverness, to come and play for us,” Stewart said. “However, finding local talent is a better option. There are a few of the first-team that have come through Ross County’s set-up and we have benefited from that, but they are largely local boys from this area who were signed up.
“This club now has a policy to use home-grown talent. There has always been talent in this region, but it was hard for them to get spotted by the bigger clubs. Our captain, Martin Gunn, was on the books of Dundee United for a while before returning here. One of our forwards, Davie Cowie, is a cousin of Watford’s Don Cowie, who has broken into the Scotland side.”
Cowie’s move to Inverness Caledonian Thistle in 2007 propelled him towards the Coca-Cola Championship and national team and Stewart says there are other hidden gems waiting to be discovered. “This used to be too remote but now they get noticed and this cup tie could be a great showcase for the lads,” he sai
Phil Gordon : The Times
(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/scotland/article6934093.ece#comment-have-your-say)
(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/scotland/article6934093.ece#none)
div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited {color:#06c;} It is little surprise that Wick is twinned with Klaksvik in the Faeroe Isles. Who else would understand all that beautiful isolation? Yet tomorrow, the Caithness town will be brimming with noise as its local team endeavours to put it on the football map.
Wick Academy is the most northerly club in British football but that geographical dislocation will be overlooked when many of the 7,300 population pack into Harmsworth Park for the Active Nation Scottish Cup third-round tie with Brechin City. The Highland League club do not seriously believe they are on the road to Hampden Park, however they are on the road to progress.
The 1,000 paying customers expected for the encounter is an attendance that would be envied by many teams in the Scottish Football League but Colin Stewart, the chairman, says that is a sign of the civic pride that Wick now has in its club. “Shops have been decorated all week in our black and white colours and there is a bit of cup fever,” Stewart said.
Those feelings had been dormant for many years. Although Wick Academy were founded in 1893, they played amateur football — apart from a couple of occasions when Aberdeen and Celtic came to Harmsworth in the 1930s for friendlies — until they were admitted to the Highland League in 1994. Wick were the whipping boys of the Highland scene for a few seasons but under the management duo of Ian Munro and Richard Hughes, the side finished fifth last term.
Wick Academy dabbled in the Scottish Cup in 2002 and 2008, but this season they knocked out Inverness Clachnacuddin and Girvan to set up a tie with Brechin, whose manager, Jim Duffy, actually led Dundee to the 2003 final against Rangers.
“Last season was the pinnacle of our club’s history because that was our highest-ever placing in the Highland League,” said Stewart, whose day job as a printer sees him entrusted with producing the match programme. “Ian and Richard also won the Highland League manager of the year — they shared the prize — and midfielder Richard Macadie was voted league Player of the Year.”
Macadie, like a number of the squad, came to Harmsworth after being released by Ross County and if that hints at the impressive youth academy at the Irn-Bru first division club — the most northerly in the SFL — it has also allowed Wick Academy to profit while also developing their own youth structure, despite a location just 20 miles away from John O’ Groats.
“In the early years of the Highland League, we used to rely on players from much further south, even down to Inverness, to come and play for us,” Stewart said. “However, finding local talent is a better option. There are a few of the first-team that have come through Ross County’s set-up and we have benefited from that, but they are largely local boys from this area who were signed up.
“This club now has a policy to use home-grown talent. There has always been talent in this region, but it was hard for them to get spotted by the bigger clubs. Our captain, Martin Gunn, was on the books of Dundee United for a while before returning here. One of our forwards, Davie Cowie, is a cousin of Watford’s Don Cowie, who has broken into the Scotland side.”
Cowie’s move to Inverness Caledonian Thistle in 2007 propelled him towards the Coca-Cola Championship and national team and Stewart says there are other hidden gems waiting to be discovered. “This used to be too remote but now they get noticed and this cup tie could be a great showcase for the lads,” he sai