ANY club with designs on the Super Premier Division title has good reason to be shaking in their boots with Auchinleck currently sitting at the top of the standings.

However, that's not just for the most obvious of reasons - namely that the Ayrshire kingpins can boast a 100% league record from four starts and a healthy advantage in goal difference over joint leaders Largs Thistle.

No, it's more to do with most knowledgeable Talbot supporters reckoning Tommy Sloan's men have yet to hit top form.

Crucially, of course, they are still winning games - a long recognised hallmark of would-be champions.

And if Saturday's 1-0 away victory over Petershill is anything to go by, the signs are certainly ominous.

Make no mistake, it was only courtesy of a smash-and-grab style raid that Talbot were able to make off with the points from north Glasgow.

They came roaring out of the blocks - scoring through a Bryan Slavin header - then sat back to withstand all Petershill could throw at them - before heading back down the A77 with another three points in the bag.

Central defensive duo Gavin Collins and Craig Pettigrew, perhaps the best rearguard pairing in Junior football, played a significant part in the win, as did Bot's diminutive but extremely agile goalkeeper Adam Strain.

Said losing gaffer Stevie Easton: "Those three, along with Slavin and the often under-rated striker Sean McIlroy, give Auchinleck an unbelievably solid spine to their team.

"We played very well and apart from affording them too much respect early on, we asked a lot of questions but found out to our cost that you simply have to take your chances against the top sides.

"That said, I cannot be over-critical and indeed I told the guys afterwards to give me more of the same effort and skill every week and we won't be all that far away come the final reckoning.

"I spoke with Tommy Sloan and for him to say we deserved at least a draw is a terrific compliment given his team are once again looking an awesome force."

The Peasy boss suffered two pre-match blows when skipper James Coulter was ruled out with a chest infection and then goalkeeper John-Paul Stark injured himself during the warm-up and had to be replaced by Anton Nugent.

But the biggest setback of all arrived 15 minutes in, when a deflected cross was met by the inspirational Slavin, whose well-directed looping header found the back of the net.

Strain was later forced into a succession of marvellous stops to deny Paul McBride, John-Paul Craig and Alan Lindsay before half-time.

After the break , Craig came even closer to bringing parity with a stinging 18-yard piledriver and shortly afterwards, thought he had earned an equaliser by deflecting home McMenamin's driven cross, only for an offside flag to cut short his celebrations.

Peasy boss Easton then went for broke by putting on tricky forward Stephen McGowan for central defender Anton Heffron and it almost paid off when Ross McCabe was afforded a gilt-edged scoring opportunity from six yards, but the ex-Hamilton Accies ace could do no better than spoon his shot over the crossbar.

The closing stages saw Auchinleck exploit the extra space going forward, with Liam McVey and John Boyle efforts coming near to doubling their advantage.

Match-winner Slavin said: "In years gone by, we'd have probably have poured forward looking for more goals and ended up shipping one or two at the other end.

"But this team is a lot more experienced now and you saw our maturity in letting Petershill come on to us and trying to hit them on the counter-attack.

"It would have felt more comfortable had Adam not been required to make several top-class saves, but there's no doubt we feel confident in our abilities to defend our corner at any venue."

Reflecting on his team's lofty league spot, Slavin added: "I suppose this is new territory for us as we're notoriously slow starters.

"However, it's definitely preferable to playing catch-up for most of the season." Marks the man in stirring Largs fightback

LARGS Thistle continued to confound the odds at the weekend as they hung on to Auchinleck's coat-tails with a 3-2 win over Glasgow giants Pollok, despite gifting their opponents a two-goal start at Barrfields.

Prolific hitman Bryan Dingwall bagged both Lok's first-half goals, his first a contender for goal of the season, however Thistle boss Sandy Maclean gave his team a boost with the half-time introduction of James Marks, which turned the game on its head.

Within five minutes of the restart, he'd earned a penalty kick, converted by John-Paul Dow, and the scores were then levelled at 2-2 around the hour mark when Robert Burgess headed home.

The stopper blighted his copybook by being red-carded shortly afterwards, leaving his depleted team-mates with an uphill task to see out the closing stages.

However, it was Largs who finished the stronger of the two sides and a Marks header clinched all three points to spark scenes of jubilation come the final whistle.

Another of the early-season high-flyers, Beith, came unstuck away to Lanark United and needed a late Andy Reid penalty kick to earn a share of the spoils after Hugh Kelly had fired the battling Yowes into a first-half lead.

Reigning champions Irvine Meadow ended a three-game losing streak thanks to Richie Barr, Zander Ryan and Frank Haggerty strikes on the way to a 3-1 defeat of Kilbirnie Ladeside.

Also back on the rails are Rob Roy, 2-0 victors over Vale of Clyde, with Michael Hughes and Paul McQuilken getting on the scoresheet.

One flight lower down, Glenafton duo Joe Savage and Craig Feroz were the men who mattered in a 2-0 top-of-the-table triumph over Cumnock who remain in second spot.

Failing to capitalise on Nock's slip-up were Clydebank, who went down 1-0 at home to Ashfield thanks to Darren O'Donnell dram-atic last gasp winner.