W ick Academy eventually overcame a spirited young Turriff United side whose preparations went awry after their team bus broke down for two hours on the way to the game, which led to a 30-minute delay in kick-off.
An early Craig Gunn strike and midfielder Jack Halliday’s goal midway through the second half was enough to secure three valuable points for the Scorries.
Academy midfield playmaker Sam Mackay said: “In the end I think we were worth our win in what was a very scrappy game of football.
“Turriff are a good young side with an average of 20.
“They’re obviously in a bit of a transition period, a bit like ourselves as we also have some young boys coming through the ranks.
“It was important for us to get three points as we’ve dropped a couple over the course of the last few weeks.
“We’ve had a bit of an up and down season so far but we have been hampered by injuries with quite a few players missing. So much so that I’ve had to play an unaccustomed role at centre-half a couple of times already this season.
“It’s now looking like I could revert to that central defensive role again when we travel to Mosset Park to face Forres Mechanics on Wednesday night.”
United manager Kris Hunter said the father of one of his players came to the rescue of the stricken team bus, just north of Dingwall.
He said: “It certainly didn’t help our cause that the team bus broke down for two hours on the way up the road.
“We had to get our pre-match meal delivered and we ate it on the bus in a lay-by which didn’t really help, but we’re not making that an excuse for the defeat.
“Julian Kinsella, the dad of one of one of our players, young Luke, has Turriff Tyres, and was on his way up the A9 to watch the game and saw us stopped in the lay-by.
“He went back to Dingwall to get tools and fixed our bus so we could get back on the road.”
Academy opened the scoring in the fourth minute with a Gunn drive and midway through the second period Halliday burst through the visitors’ defence and planted the ball past Fraser Hobday to make it 2-0.
Hunter added: “We had chances and we hit the post, we also had a couple of penalty shouts denied.
“It’s frustrating for us as we want to win games, but we need to be patient as we had six players making their first ever trip to Wick.”