John Queen says his Cumbernauld United players are maturing like fine wine after they served up a vintage performance to overcome Port Glasgow 3-0 and secure a place in the Euroscot Eng Sectional League Cup Final.

Guy's Meadow supporters lapped up a superb display of attacking football from the home side, choreographed by frontman Gary Carroll - who was close to being unplayable on the night - aided by flank pair Ross Foley and Gavin Mackie.

Queeny said: "We set the scene by playing at a terrific tempo from the first whistle and Port Glasgow simply could not live with the movement and pace of our players.

"The only criticism that could be levelled is that we should have scored several more goals but how can I lambast anyone after winning a semi-final by a 3-0 scoreline?

"Gary played much the same as he has since the start of the season and his ability to hold the ball up and bring others into play was hugely instrumental in last night's victory.

"But this was no one-man performance. A number of the guys thrived on this big stage and I just hope they have more of the same in their lockers for the final."

United started like a steam train and all but blew Port Glasgow away inside the first half-hour, by which time they had forged a 2-0 lead through Mackie and Danny Boyle.

The first goal arrived just four minutes in, when a sweeping move forward culminated in Chris Zok playing in Mackie on the left side of the penalty box.

He unleashed a shot that Port goalkeeper Robbie Graham could only deflect high into his net.

Another bout of pressure just after 25 minutes forced a corner kick taken by Mackie which was met by towering centre-back Boyle. His firm downward header found the net despite a despairing goal- line clearance attempt by defender Kearan Docherty.

Cumbernauld veteran Tony Fraser, oozing confidence although playing in an unaccustomed sweeper role, felt the game was over as a contest at that point.

He said: "We won the game with our opening spell and it's no lie to say we were disappointed to only go in with a 2-0 interval lead.

"We are a match for anyone when we click and Port Glasgow can consider themselves unfortunate to come up against us when everyone was on song.

"Whether our best is good enough to win the trophy remains to be seen but it will take a good team to beat us."

Port Glasgow made a better fist of things after manager Craig Brown pointed out a few home truths at half-time but their improved display could not prevent Cumbernauld adding a third goal on the hour mark through a quite exquisite finish from Mackie.

Striker Zok and Port keeper Graham had come together going for a through ball which fell into the path of Mackie.

He cut inside one defender before curling home a shot from 16 yards for 3-0.

That goal ended the scoring but not the talking points as an ugly melee erupted shortly afterwards.

A lunging Ryan Sullivan tackle on United full-back James Brown saw the visiting defender red-carded and yellow cards dished out to Fraser and Port duo Eddie Walton and Ross Kearns.

Beaten manager Brown said: "The opening period killed us dead and we never got into our stride from that point onwards.

"Over the piece we can have few complaints with the result but our players can hold their heads high after getting to the last four despite playing all our games away from home."

The Ardagh Glass Cup Final down in Ayrshire will be played out between near neighbours Auchinleck Talbot and Glenafton after semi-final wins over Largs Thistle and Kilbirnie respectively.

Mark Campbell, Dwayne Hyslop and Willie Lyle were on the mark in Talbot's 3-1 defeat of Largs, whose counter came from a Kevin Struthers penalty kick .

Glenafton recovered from falling behind to a Darren McLean score for Kilbirnie to win 3-1 at Valefield with goals from Ryan McChesney, Alain Kinney and Adam Strachan.