Academy bounced back in the perfect manner from last week’s disappointment with yet another superb away result against Inverurie.
How strange it is to see us sitting more than halfway through the campaign with a superior record on our travels than at the previously impregnable Harmsworth Park.
We’ve now taken nine points from a possible nine in three of our toughest and longest away trips to Formartine, Cove and Inverurie, an almost unthinkable total given our track record in previous seasons.
Although I wasn’t at the game, it sounded like this was a win orchestrated by Sam Mackay, who was returning to the starting line-up for the first time since the 11th of October.
I’m sure most Academy fans thought they had seen the last of Mackay in the black and white after a summer in which he handed in a transfer request and it seemed certain he was on his way back to that lot in Sutherland. If the rumours are true, Sam had his head turned towards the end of last season by his namesake and, I’m struggling to put this politely, the league champions ‘sponsor’ Ben Mackay who apparently promised him a transfer.
But Academy quite rightly slapped a high asking price on his head and suddenly his potential suitor backed off. Whether their interest in Mackay was ever truly genuine or if it was merely a ploy to disrupt our captain and squad is up for debate.
Anyway, stripped of the captaincy and seemingly stuck playing for a club he didn’t want to play for any more, it was difficult to see how he could force his way back into the team and win over the supporters.
Having been arguably our best player and certainly one of the best in the league in his first few years at the club, his form had dipped last season (admittedly he wasn’t the only one to suffer from this) and some were wondering if he’d even have been such a huge loss.
Football, though, is a notoriously fickle game. Wayne Rooney, for instance, has handed in two separate transfer requests at Manchester United but is now club captain and will go down as a club legend. If Mackay can continue to produce performances like that of the weekend, in particular in the Christmas derbies, then all will be forgiven and forgotten.
As an aside, huge congratulations to Fort William on their recent form and, no offence to Deveronvale, I’m sure most of the league will be cheering them on on Saturday. Suddenly our 3-0 victory over them last month looks pretty impressive!