Saturday January 26th
Snow Ice Rain 8 – SHFL 1
The thaw came too late in
places and too soon elsewhere as once again the Highland League programme lost
most of its fixtures to the weather. Six games were called off on Friday with
pitches throughout the Banffshire and inland Aberdeenshire area still snowbound.
On Friday evening prospects for Wick Academy's away game at Fraserburgh looked
quite promising but after heavy overnight rain Bellslea Park was waterlogged
and failed a 6.30 a.m. inspection. On what turned out to be a bright sunny day
the Academy squad enjoyed a training session and Orcadian midfielder James
Pickles did not have a wasted journey as he put pen to paper on a 2 year deal.
Nairn County too had hoped
that they could reduce their big fixture backlog but areas of Station Park were
still frozen on Saturday morning so when Grant Street passed a second
inspection at 10 a.m. Clachnacuddin were able to stage the day's only game
against Brora Rangers.
After his debut hat-trick
the previous Zander Sutherland was in the news for other reasons making a wild
challenge after only 9 minutes to earn a yellow card. Brora had done most of
the attacking in the opening half hour but it was the Lilywhites' Colin
Williamson who headed a corner past Ally Ridgers in the 32nd minute for what
proved to be the only goal of the game, enabling Clach to close the gap on Cove
and Academy.
Statistically speaking we
haven't yet reached the halfway point in the HFL fixture list. 152 games have
been completed so there are still 154 to play. With 16 Saturdays remaining and
League Cup games to fit in too Nairn County and Formartine United each have 21
league games remaining. Formartine have further strengthened an already
powerful squad with the signing of winger Paul Napier from Buckie so even facing
a huge backlog Steve Paterson's squad are still the bookies favourites.
Clachnacuddin are now clearly in the frame too along with Nairn. Cove Rangers
have points on the board but will they be able to keep a consistent run going?
The same question applies to Academy's challenge too even with a 5 point
advantage – they can only try to keep it going week by week and see what
happens when the other challengers face each other in catch up games. For an
outside bet Inverurie Locos and Deveronvale could make an impact and will
certainly have a big influence on the outcome because of their games with all
the other contenders.
An interesting wee footnote
for Academy fans. In SFL2 Gordon Bayne made his debut for Arbroath and he
scored a goal in each half as his new team beat Forfar Athletic 3-1.
