I’LL BE WELL LUBRICATED
Glens hero Al will need day off for his hangover
ALAN CAIRNS reckons he’ll have no problem getting time off from his day job to recover from Glenafton’s Scottish Junior Cup party – as his gaffer plays in the team.
Lubricant engineer Cairns cracked in the winner as Glens completed the Double and denied Auchinleck a record 12th success in the competition.
Now the full-back plans to hit the bar and has already told team-mate Mick McCann – his boss at work – that he won’t be coming in on the morning after.
He said: “I rarely shoot and I’ve not scored in four years.
“They say I’ve a good left foot so maybe I’ll start doing it more often. It might have been a bobble!
“I know what it feels like to lose this final and I didn’t want to go through that again.
“When you go through New Cumnock, it’s red and white everywhere. I hope I’ll not need buy a drink! We had a free bar when we won the league so it should be the same again.
“I’m a lubricant engineer and my gaffer, Mick McCann, is in the team so I’ve put a holiday in for tomorrow. He can’t say no now.”
Cairns – who was on the losing side against Hurlford three years ago – netted as Glens came from behind to lift the trophy for just the second time in their history.
Both sets of supporters joined in for a warm round of applause for ex-Talbot star Sam McCulloch.
He scored the only goal in the 1991 final against Newtongrange Star but sadly died earlier this year of dementia aged 57.
It was Talbot who took the lead with a brilliantly worked counterattack on 18 minutes.
Stephen Wilson won the ball on the halfway line and played a neat one-two with Keir Milliken.
The pair then drove at the heart of the Glens defence before Wilson slipped in Milliken who fired low past Brian McGarrity.
However, Glens equalised on 27 minutes when Daniel Orsi wriggled away from two challenges and crossed for Cameron Marlow to steer home a left-foot volley.
They completed the comeback when Cairns hammered an unstoppable 25-yard howitzer into the top corner.
Delighted boss Craig McEwan said: “If Alan’s goal had been scored in the Champions League Final or La Liga we would be seeing it forever.
“I set the players targets at the start of the season and I never thought for one second that we would win both the league and cup. Only Talbot have done it before but we deserved it.
“It has been an unbelievable season and I will need to go into rehab as I don’t think my liver can take more celebrating.”
Talbot boss Tommy Sloan was looking for his sixth Scottish Cup success which would have see him surpass club legend Willie Knox.
Sloan said: “We have not scored the goals when we have needed to this season.
“One or two of our players tired but we have no complaints.”