Scottish Junior Cup: Auchinleck Talbot edged out by Darvel

A 1-0 win over Darvel at Recreation Park on Friday wasn't quite enough to overcome Talbot's 2-0 defeat in the first leg, as their East Ayrshire rivals made it through to June's showpiece final against Arthurlie.

It means Talbot will have to wait at least another year to add to their record 14 triumphs in the famous old competition.

With a mountain to climb on Friday night, Auchinleck showed plenty of belief they could get back into the tie at Recreation Park.

A stunning long range strike from Aiden Wilson on 21 minutes got Talbot right back in it, but the next 70 minutes produced no further goals, and it was Tony McInally's side who were celebrating at the final whistle as they reached the final for only the second time in their history.

“I wasn’t too down about last week’s game," Sloan told the Scottish Junior FA after the final whistle, "and tonight we dominated a lot of the match.

"We had a good appetite about us all night, and we kept it going until the end.

“We were a wee bit naïve, I thought - we got a bit desperate near the end, and there was a bit of time to go.

“I thought we should have been a bit more composed at times. It showed that we had a young team tonight, but the appetite was tremendous.

“We had plenty of time to get another, we just couldn’t manage. But it certainly wasn’t for a lack of trying."

The aggregate defeat followed hard on the heels of Talbot's agonising exit from the West of Scotland Cup earlier this month, with Pollok triumphing on penalties after a 2-2 draw at Beechwood Park in the last four of that tournament on April 6.

It means Talbot must now concentrate on the Premier Division for the closing stages of the season - though with eight league games to play in the space of just two and a half weeks, it's going to be a hectic end to the campaign, even without any cup finals to contend with.

Sloan commented: “We want to finish as well as we can in the league. We haven’t given up on anything yet.”

A similar sentiment was shared by the club's assistant manager Allan McLuckie, who spoke to Auchinleck's own media team following the match.

He said: “The boys are disappointed in there. We dominated much of the game, it just never fell for us.

“In the first tie we probably didn’t do ourselves justice. Overall we are disappointed, but their effort and performance tonight – we need to take the positives from that.

“We’ll take that forward into the league campaign and see how high we can finish.”

But there's no denying that a tough task lies ahead if Talbot are to catch current league leaders, and reigning champions, Beith, who climbed to the top after beating Hurlford on Saturday.

Talbot's tough run-in, which includes four midweek fixtures, begins on Wednesday, April 24, at home to Gartcairn.

The Beechwood Park side also have a points deficit to overturn, with a maximum of 63 available to them while Beith can finish on 66 if they win all their games but McLuckie is not giving up hope just yet.

He told Talbot's media team: “There is a lot of young guys who have maybe not played as many games as that in a short period of time.

“We’ve got a squad, and we’ll need to utilise that, but it’s going to be a difficult period to cram all the games in.

“We just need to go and give it our best shot and I’m sure we will do.”

Regardless of how the rest of the current campaign pans out, McLuckie says he has high hopes for next season - particularly given the way Talbot have recovered from a disappointing start which saw them win just one of their first eight league matches.

"The support we’ve had from the fans and committee has been exceptional," he said.

“At the back end of the year we weren’t in a good position, but hard work with everyone connected with the club has got us there.

“The club’s given us money to bring new players in, players have worked that wee bit harder, and the fans have come out in their numbers and supported the players.

“We are a young team and we’ll learn from this experience. Hopefully we will be better for it next year.”

Talbot's remaining fixtures are as follows: April 24 v Gartcairn (H, 7.30pm); April 27 v Arthurlie (A, 2pm); April 29 v Rob Roy (A, 7pm); May 1 v Hurlford (A, 7pm); May 4 v Pollok (H, 2pm); May 8 v Largs Thistle (A, 7pm); May 11 v Benburb (A, 2pm).

Full highlights and interviews are available via the Auchinleck Talbot YouTube channel.

All photos: Craig McGhee/Auchinleck Talbot FC