Auchinleck ready to show juniors' cup quality on visit to Forthbank

Published on Friday 27 November 2009 22:51

AT LAST, junior teams have a chance to shed their image as the hatchet men of Scottish football.

Discussion over what takes place on junior pitches – particularly in Ayrshire, it must be noted – almost routinely regresses into talk of violence. And that's just on the field. This is the area of our game, according to popular conjecture, where pitch invasions are common and players banjo each other with gay abandon.

Police officers, hitherto unsuccessfully seeking a certain gentleman following an assault with a pool cue in an Ardrossan bar a few years back, memorably hauled the fugitive off a pitch in handcuffs as he lined up for his local junior team a week later.

Most other tales are apocryphal, most are amusing, but they have contributed to an image of the junior game which is probably not realistic in 2009.

Tommy Sloan, the manager of Auchinleck Talbot, bridles at the "myths" of the junior game. This afternoon, his team have the opportunity to prove their basic football talents with a Scottish Cup tie at Stirling Albion. Needless to say, the locals at Forthbank will be expecting a fractious encounter.

"It annoys me a bit, all the references to trouble in the junior game," Sloan explained yesterday. "Largs had four men sent off and another one carried off last week, there was a bit of trouble in another game at Kilbirnie, and these things get a big write-up. Most of the time, all that is happening is the same handbag scraps that happen in senior football.

"Some of the pitches we play on week in, week out, are not conducive to good football and that is a big factor. But the junior game has a lot more football played in it than 20 years ago; it was a lot more physical back then."

Sloan feels the quality of surface in Stirling will suit his team and, in turn, do their bit for the juniors. "We want to prove to people that there is good football played at our level," he said.

"We have always seemed to be better when we have played on senior pitches, they seem to enhance us."

Sloan is adamant in his belief Stirling are favourites to progress to round four. "They will probably get promoted into the First Division this season," added the Auchinleck manager. "I have watched them and they are a good side, full of youth and energy.

"There is no doubt we are underdogs. We will put pressure on ourselves, a lot of pressure to perform, but the most pressure will be on Stirling."

Not that Auchinleck should be viewed as minnows. One of the most successful clubs in the junior ranks, they still boast crowds which put a lot of senior teams to shame. The traditional and hate-filled (no, really) derby with Cumnock, plus meetings with Irvine Meadow would easily attract four-figure attendances to Beechwood Park. Some 500 fans are expected to leave the former mining village in east Ayrshire to cheer on Talbot this afternoon sensing, like Sloan, that their team can "pose problems" to Albion.

On the field, after all, those who wear the striking yellow and black stripes are the reigning Scottish Junior Cup champions – a matter which guaranteed them entry to the senior equivalent – and are the only club in history to have lifted that trophy three seasons in a row. Auchinleck's honours list is about as long as the town's telephone directory. Their first shot at the Scottish Cup, then, is one they are fully intending to relish.

"There is a freshness about this for us," said Sloan. "We have already played a couple of Highland League sides and now it is great for us to play a team from the Second Division. We are treating it as something different but, as I said, with that point to prove about our own standards."

Regardless of Auchinleck's progress, or that of Irvine Meadow who face Arbroath this afternoon, debate will rage on over whether or not junior teams should have an available route into the Scottish Football League. "My personal opinion is that I would like to see a pyramid system in place," Sloan said.

"As a manager, I would love a situation where we would have an opportunity to test ourselves against senior teams. But I accept others at junior clubs, and maybe others at my club, may not be as keen. It is a basic fact that our crowds would be a lot smaller for games against Albion Rovers, for example, than against Cumnock."