CUMNOCK Juniors boss Stephen Swift had plenty of positives to take from his side's opening day victory in the West of Scotland Football League (WoSFL) Premier Division.

Allan MacKenzie's 70th-minute strike was enough to earn full points against Benburb at New Tinto Park in Swift's first competitive match in charge - and the new manager said he had lots to be pleased about.

He told the Chronicle: “Pre-season’s gone all our way. Your worry as a manager – although you don’t want to get beat – is you learn a lot in defeat and adversity. We didn’t experience that.

“When we started the game against Benburb, and how hard they made it for us, we weren’t at our full flow.

“We came in at 0-0 [at half time] and I commended the boys for sticking to the game plan and doing things the way I wanted, which was really pleasing.

“We made a few adjustments at half-time and they bought into that as well.”

A highlight for Swift was the impact made by his substitutes, with attacker Thomas Orr setting up MacKenzie for the winner just 10 minutes after the pair entered the fray.

Swift continued: “It was stressful, but the clean sheet, the defensive display and how we showed our firepower was pleasing.

“We showed we can mix it up and bring more on. It shows the recruitment side has been good cause we can change it up.”

After a pre-season full of goals from the Townhead Park side, Swift says it was pleasing to see his team are prepared to put in the hard yards at the other end.

He added: “Sometimes grinding out a 1-0 win can be really good for the soul of the team.

“They showed me they had bags of quality pre-season, winning 6-1 a couple of times, winning 5-0. That was there in abundance.

“What I didn’t see was ‘are we able to grind out that 1-0?’, so that was the most pleasing thing on Saturday.

“It was an awkward, difficult, first game of the season, so I’m glad we got through that, and the result really shows the boys' character.”

Games are now coming thick and fast in the WoSFL Premier Division, and Swift is keen to kick on from the opening day win.

Next up for Nock is Largs Thistle's visit to Townhead Park on Wednesday night (July 31), before the short trip to Beechwood Park to face fierce rivals Auchinleck Talbot on Saturday in what looks certain to be a closely-contested derby.

"We’ve put big emphasis on this being a big seven games to start the season," Swift said.

"You want to get an adequate amount of points out of them so you’re not feeling pressure or getting left behind later in the season.

“What we need to do now, to achieve our long-term goals, is keep thinking short term.

“We can’t think about even Talbot on Saturday. At this moment in time our immediate attention turns to Largs.”

Wednesday night's home match with Largs has a 7.45pm kick-off, while Saturday's derby clash at Talbot gets under way at 2pm.