Auchinleck Talbot 6 Penicuik Athletic 0

So inevitably it was the end of the road for the Cuikey. Talbot are a very fine side and as better teams than Penicuik have discovered they have quick, strong, skilfull players - good defenders and mobile midfielders and forwards who have an eye for goal. They are the current Scottish Junior Cup holders and I imagine they will either retain their trophy or come close to doing so because it is hard to imagine that there are any better Junior teams out there. They may even give my beloved Hearts a few problems in the Scottish Cup in January.

The match started in driving rain of biblical proportions on a good pitch that did cut up as the afternoon wore on. In the first ten minutes the Cuikey keeper Bald made 4 fine saves (icluding a remarkable double save) to keep Athletic in the tie but by half time inevitably 'The Bot' had assetred their superiority with 3 goals. Three more followed in the second half but Penicuik were unlucky not to get a late consolation when sub Jonny Harvey cut in from the left and tested the Auchinleck onion-bag custodian with a rasping shot. The final score was a bit generous for the home side with two of the goals coming from a relatively soft penalty and an award of the fifth goal being confirmed by the linesman after the ref had judged that a drop by the Cuikey keeper Bald had crossed his own goal line - it had not. Perhaps 4-0 would have been kinder and more representative.

Half time provided a great non-league highlight when the Penicuik sub Dean Knight was spotted retreiving a ball from a local garden protected from the stadium by barbed wire at the top of it's perimeter fence. I am not sure how he got into the said garden but his exit route seemed to require him climbing over a few fences and going through a number of Auchinleck residential gardens.

The catering was of a reasonable standard with a nice greasy scotch pie costing only a quid. An interesting item on the menu was 'lentil soup' which on this occasion I did not sample but as I am likely to be back at 'The Bot' I will no doubt succumb to temptation on a future visit.

The journey was good and I was relieved to find out before I set off that the home of Talbot is not in Dumfriesshire but in East Ayrshire. I didn't realise that there were two Auchinlecks ! So, only the 64 miles to get there ! I am looking forward to returning in January if Talbot are drawn at home in the next round. This is a club with loads and loads going for it. A great infrastructure, a great wee stadium and a very good team.

Journey miles 128

Total Road to Hampden miles 372

Flipping heck ... I am off to Auchinleck !

The draw for round three of the SJFA Cup was made last week ... and ... it has paired Penicuik Athletic with the holders Auchinleck Talbot from darkest Dumfrieshire !

I will be attending the tie this Saturday (26th Nov) and I have a feeling that this may be the end of the road for the Cuikey ....

By coincidence my team Hearts have been drawn to play Talbot in the Scottish Cup in January so I think I will be seeing a lot of the men from Auchinleck over the next few months ...

SJFA Cup Round 2 Replay: Penicuik 4 Glasgow Perthshire 1

This is becoming a very enjoyable experience. If you have read the whole thing you will know that I was unsure whether I would continue with this ... until last week. A rainy day in Possilpark Glasgow a week past Saturday watching a 0-0 draw clinched the deal - I am now fully committed.

After a goall-less first game, the replay was a veritable goal fest. Penicuik won 4-1 and in truth could have won about 9-3. Lots of goal mouth action and some good goals. Penicuik's last three goals were scored Thomson, Cunnison and Gay (when I got back home after the first game on the 'road' with the match programme my daughter Mo was most amused that Penicuik had players Bald and Gay). Penicuik's first goal was an own goal when a fierce cross from Harvey was deflected past his own keeper by a forlorn Perthshire defender. Perthshire got a consolation goal late in the match.

The low-light of the match was seeing a stricken Perthshire leaving the pitch on a stretcher having sustained a broken ankle in what seemed to be an innocuous challenge with Penicuik's Dean White. The highlight for me was seeing some tremendous old-school response to heckling from the Glasgow centre forward Craig. In the 72nd minute with his team losing 2-0 Craig missed from the edge of the box. The young lad had previously annoyed both the players and fans of the Cuiky with some theatrical antics and verbals. After his miss the locals started braying some donkey noises from the terracing. In reply young Craig looked towards them and starting with an exaggerated pirouette of his right wrist he culminated the gesture with a firm, vivacious and strident V sign. No modern one-central-finger nonsense for this purveyor of the offensive gesture. Great stuff ! The referee was about 20 yards away with (I think) a good view of the incident but pretended not to see it.

Other ineteresting snippets: (i) the first match on the 'road' where I have not been 'Jimmy No Mates' - my son Brian was at the match with me - a pre-match pint in the Bellmans too; (ii) I now realise that Linesman in Civvies is not unusual in the Junior Cup - same here as in Glasgow last week; (iii) Good programme at Penicuik [no programmes at either Glenrothes or Perthshire]; (iv) sampled the Penicuik pie for the first time - nice one - and at a £1 a time good value - bovril good too.

Journey Miles 2

Total 'Road to Hampden' Miles 246