Junior Cup Final: Auchinleck Talbot 2-1 Musselburgh Athletic
Killie born Young seals ninth crown for Talbot
By MATTHEW HAROLD at Rugby Park
AUCHINLECK Talbot required extra time to see off East Region Superleague side Musselburgh Athletic in order to claim their record ninth Scottish Junior Cup title with Kilmarnock born midfielder Bryan Young scoring the winner at Rugby Park.
In a back and forth first half, the Ayrshire side took the lead with only two minutes left as a mistake at the back by Scott Gibson allowed Michael McCann to race in and place the ball beyond the outstretched hands over Musselburgh keeper Kieron Renton and into the net.
Both sides continued to press for goals, with both John Boyle for Auchinleck and Kris Renton for Musselburgh having golden opportunities for each team, but neither could find a way to goal, until, with 15 minutes to go when Kris Renton raced down the right hand side before finding the onrushing Chris King, who slotted the ball home, to the delight of the Musselburgh support.
After Musselburgh had continued the reminder of the 90 minutes, the Beechwood Park side came out of the traps after the full time whistle and gave David McGlynn’s side the ultimate sucker punch as Bryan Slavin’s cross from the right made its way through to Bryan Young, who put the ball into the net and sent the Auchinleck fans wild.
Talbot manager Tommy Sloan was delighted with the cup success, saying: “It was a nervous afternoon late on, but I think we deserved in the end.”
On the last ten minutes, in which Musselburgh dominated, Sloan claimed: “That was the nervy time, when they equalised it could have went either way, in extra time we regained our composure and I think we ran out deserved winners in the end.”
The Auchinleck boss then spoke about his side’s fitness levels being a key factor in the victory, saying: “Maybe that was it, but I had to take two midfielders off at the end because of what they had put into the game, they’re two fit boys and they put a lot into the game, but we had to freshen it up a bit in extra time showed in the end.”
Sloan has now claimed three Scottish Cup wins as Talbot boss, and asked which was the best, he claimed: “The last one’s always the best, it’s great, but we’re just delighted and we’ve had a really tough time getting through, with hard draws, against Linlithgow, Irvine Meadow, Cumnock and Bo’Ness which is great, but Musselburgh, give them a lot of credit today, as I say they could have been the winners in the last ten minutes of the game.”
The cup victory now means that Talbot will be included in next season’s senior Scottish Cup, and that was important to Sloan as he said: “That’s the big incentive for me personally it gives us the chance to hopefully tackle a Premier League side, so if you can win two or three games that would be great.”
Goal hero Bryan Young also spoke about the victory saying: “I was a bit gutted that it went into extra time, we were worried but when it went into extra time I always thought we’d have been fitter, we always finish games well.”
On his goal that sealed the victory for Talbot, Young said: “I shut my eyes and it went in, no I would just like to tell the keeper not to look at the eyes, that’s all I’m going to say about that, it’s a good finish, I was excited, but my brother’s raging, he had me on to score anytime, so he says I could have scored a wee bit earlier and he’d have been delighted but that’s the way it goes.”
Young, however was critical of his side’s second half performance, saying: “I think we got a wee bit complacent at times, we could have been a bit more professional at times and killed the game, but obviously we got punished for that, so we can take that into account and learn from that.”
The midfielder then gave a special mention to the Talbot support, saying: “It was fantastic, you could hear their fans, then our fans, it’s just different schools. They’ve followed us everywhere, it’s not just Rugby Park, it’s everywhere, it’s Bo’Ness, Linlithgow, everywhere, they’ve followed us to Huntly, and they’re fantastic.”
Sloan’s opposite number, Musselburgh Athletic manager David McGlynn about how the end of normal time came just too early for his side, saying: “Going into extra time, we’ve got a lot of boys that have niggling injuries, but in the 90 minutes, if we had another five minutes in the 90 minutes, then I think we would have had them on the rack at that point. We changed the formation and we pushed and we pressed more and we were getting joy out of that, then we’ve just switched off in the first minute of the extra time and its cost us the cup.”
McGlynn wasn’t about to blame Scott Gibson, whose mistake cost the first goal, saying: “Scott was unbelievable for throughout the game, he was absolutely magnificent, but he just couldn’t get the ball out of his feet to get enough on it. But probably Alan Morgan should have dealt with it first rather than passing it to Gibby, if he’d just have cleared his lines. “
The Musselburgh boss praised his side, who had been labelled no-hopers before a ball had been kicked, saying: “Of course, you come into the game, virtually we can’t win the game, then you’ve got them on the rack at 1-1 and you’re trying to press and get the winner in 90 minutes.”
Finally, McGlynn spoke of his delight that so many Musselburgh fans had made the trip from the east, saying: “I was delighted for the fans, I don’t know what the official attendance was, but they were absolutely tremendous, they were there in their numbers and it’s a great achievement for a club as small as us.”
Musselburgh Athletic: Kieron Renton, C Gordon, A Morgan, S Gibson, G Kerr, C Shand (O Russell, 105), G Beveridge, C King, Kris Renton, M King, P Tansey (B Murray, 63,). Subs Not Used: G Draper, A Porteous, I Ramage, W Mitchell, A Adams.
Auchinleck Talbot: A Leishman, J Latta (D Gillies, 70), L McVey, R Robb, G Collins, C Spence (K Connelly, 83), B Young, S White, M McCann (S Mallan, 105), J Boyle, B Slavin. Subs Not Used: S Davidson, J O’Neill, M McGoldrick, G Smith.
Referee: Greg Aitken
Man of the Match: John Boyle (Auchinleck Talbot)
Attendance: 6,025
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