Post-Match Reaction: Final Ball Let Us Down
A late Wick Academy winner following a Martin MacDonald error condemned Nairn County to defeat at Station Park and gave the visitors a huge advantage in the race to finish the season as the top North FA club in the final Highland League table.
Although manager Les Fridge felt his side played some of their best recent football in the game, he conceded that the killer pass in the final third was lacking from his charges.
County fell behind in the first half after a sluggish start to the game when Steven Cunningham fired the
After the match, Fridge said: "I felt we started a wee bit sluggish but we had the Brora game (in midweek) which was a very hard game for us. We've been playing games Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday and I think it took for us to go 1-0 down before we upped our game.
"Give them (Wick) credit. They play to their strengths with one up front and they play to hit you on the break. I thought we managed to cope with that and in the second half, I thought we totally dominated the game. It was wave after wave of attacks and we played some of the best football we have played in weeks. We knocked the ball about and our passing and movement was good. I just thought that in the final third, our final ball let us down. The final cross or pass just wasn't good enough."
He added: "Then there was a bad mistake by Martin MacDonald who
"Take nothing away from Wick. But after going 1-0 down, I thought we dominated the remaining three-quarters of the game. But that is the second time that has happened to us as we went up to Wick and totally played them off the park but went 1-0 down with about five minutes to go and then lost a couple of late goals because we were chasing the game. It just seems to be the way against Wick just now for us."
Talking about the goals, the manager stated: "If I am going to be critical, the goal in the first half, we gave the boy a lot of time on the edge of the box when he should have been closed down. The second goal you would expect them to capitalise on the mistake that was made.
"From our point of view, it is something that we have been doing all season. We want to overplay things at times - especially in our own box - and it is costing us at times."
Fridge made an early change when he took off Marc MacDonald with only a quarter of an hour played. The manager explained: "He had the flu earlier in the week and he played on Wednesday night. He was struggling to catch his breath a wee bit because he wasn't totally over it which meant we had to change things around."
Looking ahead to the remainder of the season, Fridge was hopeful that his side could claw back some points on the teams ahead of them. "I would to think we could catch the teams just ahead of us," he said. "We have three games to go now and it would be nice to finish with the nine points. Today is a game we should definitely have taken points from and if we keep playing the way we have been playing, then I don't see any reason why not."