After a very tough and intense start to the season for Academy, Saturday’s home game against Fort William was exactly what was needed, as we ran out 8-1 winners without ever needing to leave first gear.
Tricky league fixtures against Clach, Nairn and Formartine, allied to a couple of massive midweek cup ties, has been a big ask for the hugely talented, yet threadbare squad we currently possess.
It’s a shame to see Fort William regress so much after their excellent campaign last year, but given their propensity for taking points from us in the past, I won’t complain too much.
The stand-out performers of the match were Steven Anderson and Sam Mackay, who scored five goals between them to complete terrific individual weeks.
For Anderson, it was a second senior hat-trick and a week that has seen him hit the net five times in the space of seven days.
The young forward from Lybster has shown that, when usual talisman Davie Allan has a quieter game, he is more than capable of stepping up and providing some magic moments.
Sam Mackay, on the other hand, was coming fresh off of his last minute winning penalty against Clach in the North of Scotland Cup quarter final last Wednesday, and he provided two more classy finishes on Saturday. Without a doubt he has been our best player so far this season, in my opinion.
That dramatic victory against Clach was of course the most important result of the season so far for us.
With no disrespect to Clach, it would have been extremely frustrating for Academy to have eliminated defending champions Brora only to come undone here.
Revenge was on the mind after being stunned by Gordon Morrison’s hat-trick in the first game of the season, and it was a shock to see him starting on the bench for the cup encounter.
Despite the dramatic conclusion which saw Clach grab a 90th minute equaliser before Mackay smashed home the winner from the spot, it was a more than deserved win for us.
But there is no time to dwell on the past as up next is one of the toughest fixtures of the season as we travel to Aberdeenshire to take on Turriff United.
In last season’s encounters we twice held a one-goal lead going into stoppage time before contriving to throw the game away both times and seeing what should have been six points turn into zero.
With revenge already exacted on Clach, lets hope we can do the same down at The Haughs.