Pope hot to trot as Bot beat the weather to leave Ford feeling chill
IT’S fair to say Premiership frontrunners Hurlford United were blown away by a supercharged Auchinleck Talbot display on Saturday, with the visitors running out 5-0 victors.
The weather conditions were bordering on Polar when the Blair Park action got underway and there was no doubting which of the two teams were more at ease in the biting cold as the visitors were in the ascendancy from the first blast of referee Ryan Oliver’s whistle.
Talbot scored and it was fitting reward as a largely underwhelming Hurlford defence was breached twice more inside the opening half hour as Tommy Sloan’s side showed they have the tools to dismantle even the toughest opponents.
Their enterprise going forward was perfectly captured by the simplicity of the game’s opening goal with just six minutes played after Jack McDowall and Graham Wilson played a text book one-two that released the former down the left flank from where he pinged over a back-post cross that Gareth Armstrong looped in with a header.
Hurlford were afforded no chance to show any resolve because two minutes later their deficit was doubled when the impressive McDowall’s searing run into the box was ended by a despairing Ross Fisher challenge, and Stevie Wilson netted the resulting penalty with great aplomb.
Two goals up, an emboldened Talbot continued to hit the higher gears and a third duly arrived with 27 minutes on the clock as Graham Wilson rose above a tame defensive challenge to spear Gordon Pope’s clipped free kick into the back of the net.
Full-back Pope (what a 90 minutes he served up) was invited by backing off defenders to put his name on the scoresheet before half time however his well struck effort that beat Hurlford goalkeeper Ally Brown all ends up rebounded back off the bar.
Talbot boss Sloan admitted: “Hurlford simply had no answer to us out there. We started really well which has not always been the case in recent outings and our two front players were particularly lively and posed them all sorts of problems with their movement.”
There was a greater resolve about Hurlford at the start of the second period but any hopes of staging a comeback were put to bed by Auchinleck going 4-0 ahead through Graham Wilson meeting a Pope cross to direct a powerful header into the corner of the net.
Some decisive interventions by David Barron & Co and at least two goal line clearances ensured the scoreline continued to remain relatively respectable however Talbot and that man Pope had left the best to last or more accurately the 75th