Wick Academy 2
Ross County 1
A Richard Macadie penalty and Gary Weir’s header earned Academy an unexpected win against an experimental Premiership outfit which included six trialists in their 19-man squad.
No names from County manager Derek Adams who did say: “They came from Holland, Belgium, Italy, France and England, they are all defenders as we need to improve defensively and we will make decisions on these players pretty soon.
“I won’t give any names out but we have had them with us for most of the last week and it was good to have a look at them against a team which has done really well in the Highland League.
“Results don’t really matter at this stage, we don’t have our strongest team out and we are chopping and changing and using players who probably won’t be here at the start of the season.”
The Dingwall club kicked-off with their entire back four made up of trialists and they had two more on the bench but former Caley Thistle goalkeeper Antonio Reguero, midfielder Joe Cardle and forward Jake Jervis all made their debuts.
The game’s first chance fell to Rocco Quinn in the fifth minute but his six-yard volley from a Jervis cross flew high over the top, three minutes later Melvin de Leeuw volleyed a Cardle cross wide of the target.
In the 12th minute County goalkeeper Reguero had to look lively to get down quick to hold a Stevie Cunningham 10-yard drive, and he had to repeat the feat to smother a Sam Mackay effort two minutes later.
In the 26th minute Academy shocked the Premiership outfit when they took the lead from the penalty spot when Davie Allan was fouled by one of the trialists and Richard Macadie scored the resultant spot-kick.
Three minutes later County levelled when Wick failed to clear a corner and the Dingwall club’s other trialist central defender stabbed the ball home from four yards.
In the 65th minute Jervis was unfortunate when his powerful header crashed back off the underside of the crossbar before being cleared to safety but in the 73rd minute Wick regained the lead when Cunningham’s cross was met by substitute Weir and his deft header went in at the far post.