It had three great goals but it was not a great game. Not that the supporters of Glenafton Athletic will have spent too much time worrying about that as they celebrated only their second success in the Scottish Junior Cup final last night.
Those of us who turned up at Rugby Park expecting to see a cross between rollerball and Aussie Rules were disappointed as both sides concentrated on playing a passing game before an impressive crowd of 6,144. The left back Alan Cairns, a member of the Athletic side which lost to Hurlford in the final three years ago, proved the matchwinner here with a goal fit to win any trophy in front of a crowd which topped Kilmarnock’s average attendance last season.
Although the rivalry was intense off the park as well as on it, both sets of supporters united in the fifth minute to applaud the memory of Sam McCulloch, who had played for each club and scored the winner for Auchinleck in the 1991 final against Newtongrange Star. McCulloch died in February after suffering from dementia.
Talbot broke the deadlock with a superb counter attack two minutes later. Stephen Wilson broke through some atypically insipid challenges and played a one-two with Keir Milliken before releasing the striker, who beat Brian McGarrity with a low angled drive from eight yards.
Glens drew level when winger Daniel Orso left two defenders for dead on the right flank before delivering a deep cross. No-one had tracked Cameron Marlow’s late run and the midfielder sent a cushioned volley beyond the goalkeeper.
Advertisement
Astonishingly, there were 74 minutes on the clock before the first yellow card was shown in this all-Ayrshire affair: Ryan McChesney sanctioned for a foul on Marlow.
Cairns, an unlikely hero, restored Glens’ lead. When he collected the ball 25 yards out, a cross seemed on the cards but, with no team-mates in a better position, he tried his luck and his swerving drive found the postage-stamp corner. “It’s the first goal I’ve scored for four years,” said the lubricant engineer. “I’ve got tomorrow off because my gaffer is [team-mate] Mick McCann so I’m going to enjoy myself tonight. There was a free bar when we won the Western Premier League so I’m hoping it’ll be the same again.”