Largs Academy 3 Stewarton Academy 2 The Academy senior boys season was restarted with a home tie against Stewarton in the Ayrshire cup. The last competitive action for the local boys was in November against Auchenharvie.

Largs had not played Stewarton in recent years so this game was a first for this squad. Largs started brightly enough with a few flurries forward using the pace of Reid, and Donaldson and the towering strength of Templeton making his first start for the senior side.

Largs edged ahead in eight minutes with a header from H.Donaldson which looped over the visitor’s keeper.

The Academy boys kept the pressure on and only five minutes later, a Donaldson shot was deflected by the Stewarton centre half into his own net, to make it 2-0.

Pressure on the Stewarton goal was sustained, firstly through a Reid lob then a Donaldson shot which went narrowly past the post.

A Chalmers free kick was met by captain MacRaild but his header flew over the visitor’s crossbar.

Half time arrived and Largs should really have been out of sight, any attacking flurries from Stewarton were ably mopped up by Largs’s back four.

The interval appeared to give impetus to Stewarton and it looked as though Largs’s missed chances would be critical when a Stewarton corner was scrambled over the line to make it 2-1. Stewarton were making more progress now and a good Flack save kept the advantage for the Largs side.

Reid, however, decided to take matters into his own hands with a solo run from the left, and he passed three defenders before netting crisply to make it 3-1 for the local boys.

A Stewarton breakaway with 10 minutes to go made it a nervy finish for Largs, and they saw the game out to move in to the next round.

SQUAD; N Flack, B Cook, L MacRaild, A Brodie, J MCLaren, B Connor ,I Riddell, J Chalmers, C Reid, H Donaldson , F Templeton, L Grierson, K Cook, G Donaldson, J Petrie, S Galloway.