It’s a ‘ Nockout
Race is on to succeed McKeown at Townhead
Cumnock will waste no time in naming a successor to manager John McKeown whose reign ended in humiliation after a 6- 0 defeat by Beith.
Two candidates are being interviewed in midweek and the club hopes to have a new appointment in place by the weekend.
Girvan boss Peter Leonard, who has worked wonders to lead the seasiders into the Premier League, would be a popular choice with the Townhead fans.
Working alongside him at Hamilton Park is old Cumnock favourite Gerry Phillips.
Another name linked with the post is former Ayr United boss Mark Roberts who is now a player- coach at Hurlford.
Senior players Paul Burns and James Lundie are taking training this week while the club makes its move.
Despite finishing last season well, ‘ Nock have made a nightmare start, losing five of their first six games.
The manner of the capitulation to Beith led to an inevitable parting of ways of McKeown and assistant Martin Devlin on Sunday morning.
could be without a whole midfield for their biggest game of the season on Saturday.
The New Cumnock men, beaten 1- 0 by Auchinleck in Sunday’s Ardagh Cup final, make a 460 mile round trip to Banff to play Deveronvale in the first round of the William Hill Scottish Cup .
But a raft of key players are out for the marathon trip which has the prize of a potential money spinning tie against a Scottish league side.
Cammy Marlow is sidelined with a broken ankle while David Gray completes a two match ban.
Darren McGill is injured, Jamie McKernon is best man at a wedding while Ally Park is a doubt with work commitments.
On top of that, striker John Carter signed for Greenock at the weekend.
The main party will leave on Friday and make an overnight stay south of Aberdeen. Two supporters’ buses will follow on Saturday morning.
Secretary John Stewart said: “It will cost £ 2000 for the trip. We get £ 400 from the SFA so we’ll be heavily out of pocket.
“It’s such an important tie that the manager wants to travel the day before and we’re backing him all the way.”
Boss Craig McEwan has already played at Deveronvale – he was in the Ayr team that won 6- 0 in a Scottish Cup third round tie in 2002.
McEwan said: “We’ve got exciting things happening at this club. We are looking forward to it and I’ve no doubt this group of players will bounce back from the Ardagh final defeat.
“’ We got all the plaudits last season and rightly so but now we need to show character and respond positively.’”
boss Peter Leonard claimed there wasn’t much between the teams after a 2- 1 home defeat by Kilbirnie.
The visitors led at the break through John Sweeney and Peter McGill but a second- half strike from Darren Mitchell sparked a stirring fightback.
Leonard insisted: “We had all the ball after the interval but the difference was that Kilbirnie took their chances and we didn’t. We played some decent stuff.”
striker Scott McLean hit four goals in a 5- 2 win over Larkhall which lifted them to third in the Super First Division, nine points behind leaders Petershill but with two games in hand.
The former Killie youngster struck an early double but the visitors were level early in the second- half. McLean restored the lead and then had a penalty saved only for Ross McCrea to follow up.
McLean had the final word in the last minute with a coolly chipped spot- kick.
boss Ian Patterson claimed his team played their worst of the season in a 2- 1 win over which pulled them three points clear at the top of the Ayrshire League.
A Ryan McKay penalty was followed by a spectacular OG from Damien Bloy who blasted the ball in off the bar. Dale McLelland got one back but Declan Dunlop was foiled by a good save.
Patterson claimed: “It’s probably the worst we have played but I never feared it.”