What is the ultimate battle of good vs evil? Jesus vs Satan perhaps? The Allies vs the Nazis in WWII? Luke Skywalker vs Darth Vader? All wrong. It is actually Wick Academy vs Brora Rangers.
On one side you have a squad built almost exclusively on local players (barring the odd Pole) on a budget of next to nothing, who have slowly transformed their club from one consistently finishing at the lower end of the table into one of the strongest sides in the league.
And on the other you have a club who, in the last two years, have financially bulldozed their way to the top spot, successfully destroying any unpredictability and competitiveness that used to exist in the Highland League title race. See if you can guess which one is which.
Before the season is finished though and the champions can hopefully gain promotion so they can go and do a Gretna, there is the not-too-small issue of local pride to play for in the two (weather permitting) festive derby matches.
This is a rivalry that has taken on a life of its own in the last few years and that’s without even mentioning the FSL.
Perhaps it’s best to keep it that way but all I’ll say is I stumbled across an old interview with Brora head honcho Ben Mackay recently where, during the managerial debacle of 2012, he described their man as ‘carrying himself with vast amounts of dignity.’
What a laugh that gave me. Incidentally the same article also referred to Brora as one of northern football’s ‘most respected football clubs.’ Another bellyacher.
Having suffered a couple humiliating hammerings in recent years, the last three derbies have seen marked improvements from Academy, who will be looking to continue that into next Saturday’s match at the Dungeon.
Although all three have ended in defeat, they have all been by just the single goal with two of those games seeing us throw away a half-time lead and the other decided by a contentious late penalty.
The fact we have stopped them from scoring their usual shedload of goals is a success in itself, with each player going into these games knowing that nothing less than 100% is required.
James More will be desperate to impress and banish some bad memories of previous derbies as he deputises for the suspended Sean McCarthy, with Gordon Connelly also facing some interesting choices further up the field.
Steven Anderson started last time out against Fraserburgh with Richard Macadie demoted to the bench but it would be a big surprise if Macadie’s experienced head were to miss out again.
Lukasz Geruzel and Gary Weir will also be fighting it out for the chance to start as the central striker. Nobody relishes a derby match more than Chuckie but Lukasz’s added physical presence and hold-up play could be crucial both in defence and attack.
Sitting deep and staying tight in defence, something we’re not exactly used to, will become a necessity and utilising Davie Allan’s pace on the counter-attack will be key for us if we’re to get a result that Academy fans will be spending their Christmas dreaming about and inflict Brora’s first league defeat of the season.