Wick keen to stretch their lead over Nairn

Wick Academy playermanager Gary Manson admits he wouldn’t have been happy with eighth place at the start of the season – but the Scorries boss would now regard it as a decent campaign.

Wick face ninth-placed Nairn County at Harmsworth Park looking to consolidate their position as best of the rest in the Breedon Highland League below the top seven who have detached themselves.

At the beginning of the campaign, Manson had higher aspirations for the Caithness outfit.

He said: “For us the incentive is to try to consolidate eighth place. Even though Nairn have games in hand, 14 points would be hard for them to claw back.

“If you’d asked me at the start of the season, I wouldn’t have been happy with eighth, but given the issues we’ve had with six draws in our first eight games and the points we chucked away, if you’d asked me after 10 games if eighth was good I’d have said yes.

“It’s been a mixed season.

“At the start we were aiming to be challenging for a top-six place, but given the injuries we’ve had combined with those draws early on, it’s been challenging.”

Although Nairn are 11 points behind Wick, they do have three games in hand and boss Ronnie Sharp hasn’t given up hope of mounting a late charge to finish eighth.

He added: “We want to try to catch Wick and their aim will be to stay ahead of us.

“That’s where we want to be at the moment because the rest of them are too far ahead.

“We’re also beginning to look towards next season and how we can improve.”