Darren Henderson has warned his Hurlford United players of the need to keep their momentum going.

The experienced team boss was a mixture of delight and disappointment in the wake of his side powering to an Ardagh Glass League Cup Final triumph with an emphatic 4-2 victory over Troon yesterday.

Hurlford last held aloft the trophy prize of the season in 1976 (in a previous guise as the Jackie Scarlett Cup).

Ad the current day team certainly showed themselves hungering to get their hands on the silverware again as they roared out of the blocks to all but blow Troon away with two goals inside the opening six minutes.

Richie McKillen with a strong header that goalkeeper Ally Semple may feel he could have saved and Stewart Kean slickly converting a penalty kick after Martin “Midge” Ure was harshly adjudged guilty of a handling offence did the scoring damage.

But Hendo felt his side didn’t make the most of their high tempo start.

He said: "It was pleasing to see how the guys started the final, but we then switched off and went a bit limp instead of pushing on and putting the game to bed.

“There were more goals in us than the four we scored and our failure to put away our chances only acted to encourage Troon who needed no second asking to get at us.

“To then lose a couple of late goals definitely took some of the gloss away from our cup win and makes the game appear closer than it actually was.”

Hendo was spot on in his summations because Hurlford went from almost adding to their advantage - a Kean front post flick came off the upright - to nearly conceding a goal before half-time as Troon midfielder Colin Spence hammered a 25 yard shot against the crossbar prior to Scott Chatham being thwarted by goalkeeper Ally Brown when clean through on goal.

Hurlford’s defensive resilience in the second period - McKillen and centreback partner Chris Robertson were totally dominant – ensured little was getting through to trouble their No.1.

But he should have been picking the ball out of his net in 71 minutes when a searching Ure pass found top scorer Adam Forsyth scampering through on goal only for him to sclaff his attempted lob shot.

And as luck would have it, Hurlford went 3-0 ahead in their next attacking foray as Ryan Borris netted the goal of the game in cutting inside from his left wing beat to hammer a left foot curler high past Semple.

And the scoreline soon read 4-0 after Ross Robertson set up Paul “Taz” McKenzie to direct a fierce header beyond Semple.

The introduction of young substitutes Dale Shirkie and Jordan Muir had injected some much needed flair into Troon’s forward sorties and a goal was pulled back in 87 minutes when the hard working Forsyth was decked by Brown’s despairing challenge allowing Chris McKnight to score from the spot.

And a better complexion was put on the scoreline deep into injury time when Muir’s trickery got him past a defender to rifle a low shot into the far corner of the net for 4-2.

Troon gaffer Gordon Burns lamented his side’s wastefulness in the opposition penalty area.

He said: "At half-time we spoke of the importance of the next goal, but we then miss an opportunity to peg them back at 2-1 and they go straight upfield and snatch a killer third goal to give us a mountain to climb.

“Hopefully we’ve learned lessons that will stand us in good stead but I cannot criticise the players for their character in in battling right to the last whistle and pulling back a couple of goals.”