FIRST blood went to treble winners Auchinleck Talbot when they eased past Glenafton Athletic in the opening round of the West Region Sectional League Cup at Beechwood Park.

Tommy Sloan’s team won 4-0 in the hotly-anticipated clash. However rival boss Craig McEwan will be out for revenge when the champions begin their defence of the Premiership title in another blockbuster showdown on Saturday.

Talbot look set for a cup last 16 berth if they can defeat Darvel away tomorrow (Wednesday). But Glens’ interest in the cup ended following a 2-0 loss at Recreation Park on Monday night.

Sloan was keeping it low key after Monday’s 2-0 cup win at Hurlford and said: “The boys came in and showed and had a great appetite in the last couple of games. We lost a few more players than we would have liked and things are not perfect but we can now go to Darvel knowing a win will take us through but we know they are a good side. We won the trophy last season and want to defend it.”

Looking ahead he said: “The league game against Glens will be totally different from the cup but we are looking to win it and must aim to get a good start.”

McEwan said: “I don’t feel it was a 4-0 game as we did have opportunities but didn’t take them.

“They were given a couple of highly dubious penalties but the other goals were poor ones to lose.

“But we look forward to Saturday and are going there to win. We have conceded nine goals in our last two games against Talbot and have a point to prove.”

Reflecting on Monday night, McEwan added: “We could have been a couple of goals up at half-time and had the game out of sight but again we didn’t take our chances and we conceded poor goals.

“The games are coming really thick and fast but we will keep working hard.”