THREE miles separate the towns of Ayrshire towns of Auchinleck and Cumnock.
And there’s no love lost between followers of the two sides either.
Indeed, for local followers of these two successful Junior sides, it’s a rivalry which even outdoes Rangers vs Celtic for bitterness.
And tomorrow night, the rivalry will enter a new phase – with the first EVER meeting between the two sides in the Scottish Cup proper.
The BBC TV cameras no less will be in attendance at Beechwood Park, Auchinleck.
And while it might not be one for the purist, it will surely deliver the kind of match which puts hair on your chest, and more thrills and spills than the players of Rangers and Celtic managed to serve up in their last encounter.
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Auchinleck Talbot, founded back in 1909, have won the Scottish JUNIOR Cup on no fewer than 14 occasions.
Cumnock Juniors, formed just three years later, have won it three times.
The pair both reside in the WOSFL Premier Division so will meet on league business this season but their first meeting of these since junior sides were admitted in with the big boys should be worth watching.
A rivalry which was born down the mines flared up big style around a meeting in the Scottish Junior Cup in February 2011.
Police horses had to come onto the pitch after trouble erupted during a 3-0 Cumnock win, and further trouble erupted after the game.
Police later made dawn raids and arrested 10 people, including a mother and daughter.
There was understandable concern before the two teams’ next meeting in the Junior Cup in 2016.
Thankfully in the form of Tommy Sloan and Stephen Swift respectively, Auchinleck and Cumnock have two experienced bosses who know what to expect.
Swift, 45, who took over as Cumnock boss in 2024, knows the significance of this upcoming game will not be lost on anyone involved.
He said: “When you are from Glasgow and from other areas it is Celtic and Rangers but genuinely, when you speak to people down there it is Cumnock or Auchinleck and there is what I would call a hatred.
“I think that’s the only way to describe it because they’ve been brought up with it, and on both sides there is a real rivalry.
“This game takes the rivalry on to a different level because it’s a competition that obviously both clubs want to go far in but it’s also a competition in which they have never gone head-to-head.
“It’s a rivalry where you can say, ‘we beat you in the senior Scottish Cup’, the first time in any of the two clubs’ history.
“So there will be bragging rights and I think that’s important for the fans.
“What’s important to us is to try and get into the next round of the cup.
“And as manager, you don’t have to hype the boys up. They’ll be ready for it, they’ll be motivated, but it’s more to do with coming up with a good game plan to try and stop Auchinleck because they’re the team in form.
“They’ve set the benchmark this season in terms of being the team to beat.
“There’s no better time for the players to step up and do it for themselves, but we owe it to the club and the fans that have backed us and believed in us.”
Tommy Sloan is a veteran of this Ayrshire derby, with his tenure as Auchinleck boss dating back, remarkably, to 2003.
The 61-year-old, who has guided Talbot to seven Scottish Junior Cup victories among a plethora of other achievements, is hoping a packed crowd and television audience will remember the football on show on Friday night.
He said: “It’s maybe not quite what it was back in the 1980s and 1990s but it is certainly still a fierce rivalry.
“There is a lot of banter and sometimes it can go to bitterness, there’s always an element of that.
“They (fans) are obviously all local, they worked in the same places back in the day, such as the pits.
“I can only imagine there was a lot of banter in the pits or wherever they worked together and come the day of the game they were the best of enemies.
“I have been here for more than 20 years and we have had a few fierce meetings. Hopefully this one can be about the game and I’m pretty sure it will be.
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“If you get a bit of carry-on in the crowd it takes away from the actual game itself.
“The cameras will be there and it will be a special occasion. We are well aware Cumnock are a very good side and we will have to be at our best to get through.”
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