HURLFORD is not one of those Ayrshire villages with a distinguished football pedigree.
It doesn't have a history to rival that of Auchinleck or Glenbuck but, should Hurlford United live up to expectations by winning the Scottish Junior Cup final at Rugby Park tomorrow, then the club will be able to stake a claim as Scotland's premier community in grass-roots football.
At the same ground two weeks ago Hurlford Thistle lifted the Scottish Amateur Cup and, should their junior neighbours triumph tomorrow, the village will secure an unprecedented double.
"Aye, it would be nice to see both trophies sitting side-by-side on Sunday night", said Darren Henderson, the Hurlford manager.
In a playing and coaching career lasting nearly three decades, Henderson served many clubs, including tomorrow's opponents Glenafton Athletic. It was his controversial close-season switch from the Glen to home-town team Hurlford which has added further intrigue to what is certain to be another feisty Ayrshire derby with Glenafton.
Not only did Henderson quit New Cumnock, he took half a dozen players with him, a move which has made him a highly unpopular figure among supporters of his former club.
However, his current side would seem to justify their status as pre-match favourites. They have won the two league meetings between the sides this season and finished above the Glen in the league. They also possess a reliable goal threat in the form of former Ayr United, St Mirren and Queen of the South striker Stewart Kean.
Following Henderson's decision to quit, Tommy Bryce has been left to pick up the pieces at Glenafton. A 7-1 loss to lowly Lugar was hardly the best of starts but the coach has since got the team playing attractive football. Reaching the final has punctuated a terrific turnaround in form but Bryce has been loathe to get ahead of himself. "We've won nothing yet," he added.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article