Auchinleck Talbot boss Tommy Sloan said his side will not give up the fight for the title and possible promotion as they fell from top spot in West of Scotland Football League Premier Division at the weekend.
Talbot’s 2-2 draw away to Benburb, coupled with Darvel’s 2-0 win over Hurlford mean it’s the men from across East Ayrshire who are in pole position in the league.
Saturday saw an entertaining and somewhat controversial match at Benburb, but a match that saw Talbot surrender top spot.
After a fairly uneventful first half, it was the visitors who took the lead after 55 minutes when Bryan Boylan’s cross-come-shot deceived the Benburb keeper and it was 1-0.
Less than 10 minutes later, the score was level as the hosts were awarded a goal that was originally chopped off by the linesman.
Talbot regained the lead after 73 minutes as Keiran Healy’s left foot drive found the net.
With 10 minutes remaining, Benburb were reduced to 10 men after Docherty picked up his second yellow card.
Talbot ought to have seen the game out and secure all three point, but a late throw in caused confusion in the Talbot box and an own goal saw the hosts snatch a point.
With four league games left to play, Talbot now trail Darvel by a solitary point, but Sloan promised that his players will continue fighting until the very end.
He said: “Obviously it’s not the result we were wanting, we wanted to be in the position where it was in our own hands.
“The level of performance has dropped a bit.
“We were in a position on Saturday where we were up 2-1 with 10 minutes to go and the opposition have got a man sent off.
“We’ve not been able to see that out and it’s not good enough. It’s not championship quality.
“We need to try and win our remaining matches and hope the opposition drop points.
“It’s about results at this time of the season, but it’s certainly not finished and we’re not going to give up on anything and we’re going to give it everything in these remaining games.
“We need to try and get the league points in the bag.”
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