JAMIE Hilton now knows what it means to gain the upper hand in a Cumnock v Talbot derby.

His equalising goal, pictured, not only earned the home side a point, it was enough to deny their neighbours a championship clincher at Townhead Park.

He said: “When I came to the club I did not know just how fierce the rivalry is between Cumnock and Talbot. I had heard about it, but it wasn’t until I played my first game against them that I realised what it was actually like.

“So to score the goal that denied them winning the league here at Townhead Park, it was a good feeling. I was pleased with the goal itself. The keeper came out and I thought I was going to have to take it round him.

“Then I spotted a gap and went for it. But it seemed to take ages to go in and it felt like slow motion. The whole team played well, coming back from two goals down although I felt we never deserved to be two down in the first place.

“Our fightback started with a great tackle from Del Esplin in the midfield which started the move that led to his goal. That made it 2-1 and we just kicked on from there and got the draw, but I thought we did enough to win.”

With parent club Ayr United getting promoted, it has been a decent season-end for the wide-man known as Jinky.

“I have signed a full-time contract at Somerset Park for another year so I will be doing my best to get into the first team there and playing in the Championship,” he said.

Manager Peter Leonard chose to look at the bigger picture, as opposed to the ramifications of the 2-2 draw, saying: “For me, honestly, it wasn’t about denying Talbot the title.

“For me it was just a question of, when we play Auchinleck Talbot, we have a problem getting the games over the line. From 2-0 down, to come back from that and get a draw has meant a lot for us as a team but certainly, it’s obviously meant a lot for the town because its kinda tribal up here.

“It was about winning a game of football for us today, the consequences of that were far more for the Talbot than for us so I wasn’t really concerned about that.

“The players were aware that we could stop Auchinleck but sometimes you can overreact to it and I thought there was a good balance to that today.

“I thought we competed with them physically, matched the runs that they were doing as well and I thought it was two very good goals to get us back into it.”

Another positive Leonard has taken from the performance was his players’ resilience.

He said: “When they went 2-0 up, I didn’t think that was it. The worst day was the last time [the 5-1 game] because of the fact the attitude was wrong in the team, the desire in the team wasn’t there but certainly those boys in the dressing room with the 11 that started today and the others that came on all had the desire to get this one over the line.

“It probably means more for the folk in Cumnock but I’m just happy with the fact we’ve got another point”