Darren Henderson reckons his Hurlford United side are finding their best form at the perfect time of the season.

Three wins on the spin has boosted confidence in the Blair Park ranks which has the Ford team boss eagerly awaiting today’s locking of horns in the crunch ETHXenergy Scottish Junior Cup last-eight clash with fierce rivals Auchinleck Talbot.

The near Ayrshire neighbours were also at loggerheads in last season’s semi-final double header - Talbot won 5-2 on aggregate en-route to winning the coveted silverware for an astonishing 11th time.

However, Hendo believes his players are determined to give a better account of themselves this time out.

He said: "We are going up against the reigning cup holders whose record in the competition is nothing short of phenomenal.

"Yet I know deep down that not a sign of fear will be showing when I look my players in the eye before they run out for the game today.

“Yes there are sure to be butterflies, no bad thing if you ask me, but nobody here is running scared of Talbot even though they hold the upper hand in head-to-heads with us, the most recent coming when they won 4-3 at their place earlier this season.

“Most neutrals would say my guys deserved to take something out of that game and we did feel hard done by at the final whistle without taking anything away from Tommy Sloan and his players .

“Put it this way we’ll certainly not be feeling inferior to Auchinleck particularly as the guys are playing decent stuff in our recent outings and hopefully we can continue on a similar vein.

“Preparations for the tie have gone according to plan and everyone is fit and available barring our longer term injuries, Gus Cochrane, Euan Blair and Paul Byrne.

“There was a doubt over James Creaney after he missed out last week’s 2-0 defeat of Girvan with a bout of flu.

"However, he’s trained full out with no signs of ill-effects this week and he’ll come into contention for a starting jersey.”

Hendo hopes his highly regarded striking pairing of Ross Robertson and Stewart Kean will pose problems for the visiting backline.

He said: "I don’t think it’s any secret that Auchinleck have relied heavily on the ball-winning abilities of Mark Campbell in recent times and he’s been a major player for them in both penalty boxes.

“By and large he’s also came out on top in his battles with big Ross, but now Sparky’s long term injury absence brings changes to their backline which we must look to profit from.

“Tucker has brought in young Craig McCracken on loan from Ayr United who we were interested in signing ourselves, so I fancy we might see an intriguing contest between him and Ross that will have a major say in the outcome.”

Word from Beechwood Park reckons top marksman Graham Wilson is set to make a return after figuring as a substitute in last weekend’s 0-0 stalemate with Shettleston.

And he will most likely partner Kier Milliken in attack while it remains to be seen whether veteran James Latta or Willie Boyd is preferred on the right side of midfield.

Henderson said: "The notion that says Talbot just play route one football is fantasy as they are more than capable of passing the ball and in Butch Young have arguably one of the best playmakers doing the rounds.

"It’s vital we curb his influence as well as being on our guard to pick up Dwayne Hyslop who is a different type entirely but every bit as much a dangerman given his forward runs from midfield mark him out as regular goalscorer.

“The more I talk about the game makes me realise it’s going to be a marvellous occasion and I cannot wait for kick off time.”

In other games, Central First Division leaders Renfrew will be hard pushed to stay top of the pile when entertaining the visit to New Western Park of in-form Johnstone Burgh because a Frew slip-up could very well be capitalised upon by nearest challengers Wishaw e hosting the visit of St Roch's.

Third-placed Rossvale are at Carluke Rovers , still managerless following the departure of Martin Lauchlan though it’s believed matters are progressing with the search for his replacement and word has it that the shortlist for the post is headed up by three former Senior players, one of who is currently operating with a Super Premier Division outfit.