Cumnock 4 Largs Thistle 0

It was only goal difference which separated Largs Thistle and Cumnock in a dramatic finish to the First Division last season, but at the end of a brutal 90 minutes of football on Saturday, the gulf felt significantly wider.

Thistle have put in some really good performances of late against established Premier opposition Kilbirnie, Beith, Rob Roy and Hurlford, but they didn't come close against Cumnock.

Matters weren't helped by the loss of regular central midfielder Gary Fleming, out with a shoulder injury, and Jamie McDonald injured early on.
The home side took the lead on 23 minutes.

Thistle's Robert Love showed some magic to beat a defender but his drilled effort was blocked, but Cumnock took charge after that.

Samson set up McKenzie at the edge of the box and he drilled a rising piledriver off the bar, the ball was loaded back into the box like a pinball as a mis-hit landed at McKenzie's feet and he made no mistake from his second attempt.
McKenzie notched his second on the half hour mark as he burst clear and his first shot was saved by Ross Lundy but he blasted the rebound home to give Cumnock a two goal cushion.

Cumnock kept to the task in hand and killed off the game with the third goal as Andrew Muir reacted quickly as he burst through on the left and nutmegged Lundy at the near post on 73 minutes.

Burns rounded off the scoring as he sweetly struck the ball home from twelve yards after a poorly defended free kick from out on the right wing, which seemed to sum up Thistle's bad day at the office.

Largs are capable of much better, and while they did have some chances, particularly in the first half, it was one of the most painful defeats in a long time, with very few positives to take, apart from the shrill of the full-time whistle.

Largs: Lundy, Friel, McMaster, Gilbride, Little, McDonald, McWaters, Loftus, Marks, Love, Bennett. Subs: Littler, Thomson, Struthers, Ashe, McMahon.
Cumnock: Johnson, Wood, Muir, Lundie, Crawford, Esplin, Samson, Burns, McKenzie, Montgomerie, McRobbie. Subs; Hunter, Auld, Wells, Shirkie, Buchanan.