Wick Academy assistant-manager Richard Hughes was delighted to capture the three points with victory at Inverurie which elevated the Caithness club into sixth spot in the table.
Wick’s players made sure they negated the lift the Inverurie players would have received from having new manager Neil Cooper watching on and Hughes, in charge as manager Gordon Connelly was away, said: “We went 2-0 up against the run of play, when Locos were putting quite a bit of pressure on us.
“Conditions were difficult for both teams but our players adapted well and we’re absolutely delighted to go away with three good points.
“We are now in sixth place in the table with quite a few games in-hand, but it was important to get the win against good opposition.
“It’s all very well having games to play, but if we don’t win them then it’s easy to get passed by other clubs.”
Academy’s Sam Mackay scored twice for the Harmsworth Park club and said: “The first half was especially difficult in the wind. I said to my team-mates we needed to calm down, slow it down and try to kill the game as much as we could in that first 45 minutes.
“Fortunately the ball fell kindly for me for the opener, I took a shot and the ball went into exactly the same spot in the net as the goal I scored here against Cove in the League Cup.
“I missed the last penalty I took so this time I decided to dink it down the middle. If it works it looks great and thankfully it did.”
Locos co-manager Darren Mackie was disappointed his side could not build on dominating most of the possession in the first half.
Mackie said: “It wasn’t the result we were looking for, but we played pretty well in spells. We didn’t create enough and defensively we gave away cheap goals.
“If we can cut out the mistakes, and with the support of our new manager Neil Cooper who will identify what we need to do and will have his own ideas to put that right, the players will buy into it.”
As for Cooper’s appointment, Mackie added: “It’s a good move, Neil has great experience and I know him well from my youth days at Aberdeen.
“The players will learn a lot from him.”
