It never ceases to amaze how footballing fortunes can swing on the back of fairly innocuous matters.

Just ask Cumnock manager John McKeown, who last night was still ruing the lost opportunities that punished his side in the 3-0 ETHX energy Scottish Junior Cup defeat to arch-rivals Auchinleck Talbot.

Especially as his side took an early grip on proceedings in Saturday's all-Ayrshire showdown at Beechwood Park.

Lively trio Paul Burns, Aidan Malone and Josh Watt were to the fore in helping the visitors make the running and their clever interchanging play could have merited a goa.

But they came up against a resolute Talbot backline, superbly marshalled by centreback Martin McGoldrick.

Then in 23 minutes came a turning point when a mishit goal kick by Cumnock goalkeeper Darren Johnstone was cleverly headed into space by Bryan Young to send Graham Wilson scampering with Nock defender Paul Murphy in close attendance and doing well to shepherd the striker away from goal

Wilson’s ever worsening angle added to Johnstone's positioning at the edge of his six yard appeared to rule out a scoring opportunity.

However, the striker’s angular shot appeared to go right through the diving keeper and nestle in his net while home supporters roared their approval.

Taking heart from their advantage, Talbot began to exert more attacking pressure and might have doubled their score had not Johnston redeemed himself with stops from Gordon Pope and Wilson before capping everything with a magnificent one- handed tip-over save to deny a fierce Dwayne Hyslop header.

But right on the stroke of half-time came the most defining moment of all when Del Elspin’s poor first touch led to his lunge to recover the ball bringing down Hyslop and from 20 yards out Pope curled home an exquisite free kick to make it 2-0.

McKeown said: “If we’d went in 1-0 down at half-time then I would have fancied our chances to get back into the game.

"But that second goal gave us a mountain to climb as well as giving Auchinleck a huge boost.

“Del had his pocket picked and then Darren is not quite in position for Pope taking the free kick quickly.

"But I’m not apportioning blame as much as pointing out that you cannot get away with even the slightest of mistakes at the very top Junior level.

“It also follows that players need to be clinical when on we're on top in games and we were anything but that today.

“The positives are we competed so much better against Talbot today than we have in any of my previous games in charge though it’s hard to find any consolation knowing we are now out of the Scottish Junior Cup.”

The second period was an end-to-end affair with Talbot putting in a strong finish which saw Steven White direct a header off the crossbar before substitute Robert Brown rounded off the scoring when he forced the ball home for 3-0 in the closing stages after fine set-up play by another replacement Mark Shankland.

Auchinleck boss Tommy Sloan said: "We always carried a scoring threat and probably should have scored more than the three we did, but by the same token, Cumnock could easily have bagged a few themselves .

“It’s hard to be critical when you’ve won 3-0, but deep down I feel we have to get better to stand any chance of getting through the next round.

"Popey’s free kick was a thing of beauty and the boys are saying he was celebrating the goal even before the ball hit the net.”

There was a sprinkling of shocks in the other last-32 contests taking place, notably off the pitch at Dunterlie where Arthurlie’s 4-1 defeat of Wishaw through goals from Gary Smith(2) , own goal and Chris Dallas was overshadowed by breaking news of Robert Downs resigning his Barrhead team manager’s post.

Downsy revealed: "I informed our club officials on Friday night that win, lose or draw against Wishaw, I would be calling it a day.”

From a playing perspective, Kenny Parris and Greg Vernon scores helping Darvel to a 2-1 victory over Super Premier big guns Troon, for whom top scorer Adam Forsyth was on target raised just as many eyebrows as Rossvale doling out a 6-1 hammering to current North Region kingpins Stonehaven thanks to scores by Alex Cassells(3), Ryan Coll , Chris McQuade and Lewis Kinnaird.

West Region clubs fared particularly well on their travels with Tony Stevenston, Michael Daly and Kieron McAnespie(pen) doing the damage as Petershill posed a superb 3-0 win away to Hill O’ Beath .

Pollok’s new-look strikeforce of Davie Winters (3) and Carlo Monti(2) accounted for five of the Southsiders' goals in a 7-2 rout of Kennoway Star Hearts.

While Nikky Docherty(2) Paul Frize, Thomas Collins and Darren Christie were on the mark as Beith’ ran out 5-1 winners at Scone Thistle and comeback star Richie Barr netted Irvine Meadoow’s goal to earn a 1-1 draw against fancied Linlithgow Rose.

Ayrshire proved to be anything but a happy hunting ground for visiting sides as the trio of Kilbirnie Ladeside, Kilwinning Rangers and Hurlford United prevailed against East Region opponents with Adam Forde, Stevie Meechan and Kieron McAnespie (pen) doing the damage in a 3-0 win against Tayport while the same scoreline sufficed at Abbey Park where Bryan Boylan, Dean Agnew and Isaac Kerr were on target for the Buffs against Arniston Rangers.

Meanwhile, 2014 cup winners Hurlford had to dig deep to stage a remarkable second-half comeback to get the better of Dalkeith Thistle by a 5-3 scoreline at Blair Park.

Darren Henderson’s side had looked dead and buried when their 2-0 deficit at the halfway stage became 3-0 early in the second half.

However, goals from Stewart Keane, Paul “Taz” McKenzie and Glen Mitchell levelled matters prior to further strikes from Chris Robertson and Taz over the closing stages.

Elsewhere, Glenafton grabbed their opportunity to take over leadership atop the Super Premier Division with a deserved a 2-0 win over Rob Roy through goals from J.P. Boyle and Joe Andrew.