ALLAN McLUCKIE says he’s delighted at how Auchinleck Talbot’s new players are helping to turn Beechwood Park into a fortress once more.

Saturday’s 4-1 win over Troon, which secured a place in the fourth round of the West of Scotland Cup, was Talbot’s sixth win in a row on home turf in all competitions – and their 10th victory in their last 11 games, home and away.

It’s quite the turnaround after a new-look Talbot squad lost their first three games at Beechwood this season – to St Cadoc’s, Darvel and Clydebank - and McLuckie says he’s pleased to see how the team’s newer faces in particular are adapting to the demands that go with being a Talbot player.

Speaking to Talbot’s media team after Saturday’s match, the club's assistant manager said: “Whether we’re at home or away, we’re going out there to win every game.

“With a lot of new guys coming in, there’s a bit of pressure on them playing here at home, and they’re getting to grips with that now.

“Certainly you can see the fans are behind the team more as the weeks go by. It’s winning games that breeds that, so we just need to keep focussed on doing that and doing what we’re doing.”

Talbot, perhaps a little rusty after the postponement of their previous two fixtures, found themselves trailing at the break on Saturday to former Beechwood favourite Mark Shankland’s strike for the Seasiders.

But it was a completely different story in the second half, with Connor Boyd levelling only two minutes after the restart before a freakish strike from Neil Slooves from inside his own half gave the hosts the lead.

Jamie Glasgow and Ali Boyle completed the turnaround as Talbot became one of only two Ayrshire sides, alongside Darvel, still with an interest in two of this season’s cup competitions.

“In the first half we never really got to grips with their shape,” McLuckie continued, “and from our point of view we lost a poor goal.

“But we said [at half time] that we need to start better, and fortunately we did. We scored within the first five minutes of the second half and we pretty much dominated from there on in.”

This Saturday, December 16, Talbot travel to Alexandria to face Third Division Vale of Leven for a place in the last eight of the Scottish Junior Cup - with Hurlford United or Caledonian Locomotives awaiting the winners.

Kick-off at Millburn Park is at 1.30pm.

Watch McLuckie’s post-match interview, as well as highlights from the Troon game, at youtube.com/@AuchinleckTalbotFC - while you’ll find a full report on the match at auchinlecktalbot.com.