‘It was a blur... and we found we had a lot to learn’: Wick Academy in the Highland League, 30 years on
Pat Miller reckons he has "gone through every emotion" in his time at Wick Academy, stretching back half a century and covering a multitude of roles.
These days he is club chairman, but 30 years ago he was co-manager – facing the challenge of building a team to compete in the Highland League while also doing his bit, as part of a small army of volunteers, to ensure Harmsworth Park itself was ready for a higher level of football.
It was in March 1994 that Academy secured Highland League status, 101 years after the club was founded. As soon as the initial excitement died down after the all-important vote in Elgin, there was a collective rolling up of sleeves as the serious work began.
Wick would be the new home for Inverness Thistle's floodlights, no longer required at Kingsmills Park now that Thistle and Caledonian had merged to form a new club that would join the Scottish league along with Ross County.
Dismantling the lights and bringing them north was an early priority for the Academy task force. At the same time, Miller and his fellow co-manager John MacDonald were in a race against time to strengthen the playing squad ahead of the 1994/95 campaign and the new challenges it would bring as the club stepped up from the North Caledonian League.
"It was manic," Miller (71) recalled. "We were all trying to get down to Inverness Thistle's park to strip it of whatever we were taking.
"John and I were still looking around for players right up to the very day that we played. Nobody had done it before, so it was trying to persuade players to play Highland League football. We actually found it very difficult – hence we went through quite a lot of players in the first six weeks, trying to get a stable base."
There were also media demands to be dealt with.
"People were wanting interviews and stories on what we were doing and how we were going about it," Miller said. "It honestly was a blur.
"It was only when we actually started playing games that we found out that basically we had a lot to learn.
"It was the start of 3-5-2 and John watched Italian football because that was the only football we used to see [on TV] and he wanted to play 3-5-2. We did play it for two or three games, but it was only when I convinced him to go back to 4-4-2, and the players all understood it, that we started getting a wee bit of continuity.
"It was also finding the right players. Nobody knew Alan Murray was such a buzz bomb until five or six weeks into the season. There was a lot developing, and it was developing every week."
Honorary president Clair Harper was the "driving force", according to Miller, who also highlighted the contributions made by chairman Alistair Gunn and vice-chairman Malcolm Mackay.
"Clair knew a lot of Highland League people and he had the drive to go round these clubs and try to get favours to get the vote," Miller explained. "They did a lot of hard work, Alistair, Malky, Clair – a lot of canvassing.
"It also helped that we had a great relationship with Fraserburgh. Fraserburgh was the one team that pushed the Aberdeenshire clubs to vote for us. Without Fraserburgh I don't know how we'd have done.
"Jock McDonald [Inverness Thistle] was a powerful man in the Highland League at the time and he did a lot of work for us as well, canvassing other clubs. I think all the north clubs wanted us in – it was just persuading those Aberdeenshire clubs to buy in."
Founded in 1893, Academy had competed in the Wick league, county league, Qualifying Cup and North of Scotland Cup. From the early 1970s they played in the North Reserve League, which later became the North Caledonian League.
Miller said: "I think we'd put our name in a couple of times when there were slots, but there was no drive in the town to actually meet the criteria for going into the Highland League. And of course by the time we went into the Highland League they'd upped the criteria a good bit."
The historic vote came at Elgin City's Borough Briggs ground on the night of Thursday, March 24, 1994, when Academy got the nod ahead of fellow hopefuls Inverurie Locos and Bon Accord.
At last, Caithness had a Highland League club – and the community quickly rallied round.
"The whole of Wick participated in some sort of area of getting the park ready," Miller said. "Even though we had a good working committee, a lot of business people backed the club in those days."
For a spell Academy had a team that was capable of winning the league but ended up with only one trophy to show for their efforts – the North of Scotland Cup, in 2015. Gary Manson, an Academy player for almost 24 years, has been manager since 2020 and Miller is "quite excited" about the potential of the current squad.
"I think I've gone through every emotion, from being the manager beforehand, being manager for the first year [in the Highland League], sitting on the sidelines for a couple of years watching things develop, being involved again, getting good results but never having any consistency," Miller said.
"Then we came to the [Davie] Kirkwood era and all the players maturing at the same time. For 10 years we had a team that could match any Highland League team and was totally competitive.
"Then we were back to the stage where we started losing all those really good players, and losing the experience of those players. Covid didn't help anything either.
"We're starting again and I'm quite excited at what I'm seeing, that we could come again like a phoenix from the ashes.
"Gary has gone through a hard upbringing and learning curve from a player to a manager. I'm hopeful he has got over that part.
"I'm hoping with anticipation that things will develop again now and we can bring on some more guys, because there still are good players out there – it's just convincing them that the Highland League is the place to be."
Miller’s own association with Academy began in 1973. He has been goalkeeper, manager, general manager, committee member, kitman, physio and “apprentice groundsman”, in his own words. He has even had a go at helping in the tea hut.
"There will be jobs that I haven't done, I'm pretty sure. But in every one of them I was a willing volunteer – I wasn't pressed into anything.
"When I step down from chairman I'm sure I'll find some other job to do.
"We're all volunteers. I wish people knew how much work is involved in getting the club on the move, getting the funds to go everywhere... it's non-stop. But at the end of the day people in Caithness, not just Wick, have always been very generous and hope it always stays that way."
