Largs Thistle legend George Wall writes for the News about football matters local, national and international...

MY weekend began with a trip to Valefield Park to watch the first day of Kilbirnie Ladeside's Hammy Glen tournament on Saturday.

Three of my former clubs were playing, so I was interested to see how they are progressing before the season gets under way.

Dalry Thistle beat Knightswood 2-0 in the first game, while Irvine Meadow defeated Ladeside 4-3 in a North Ayrshire derby clash in the second.

Dalry have a few good young players in their team - they're full of energy and I thought they deserved their win against a more experienced Knightswood side.

In the other game, despite going 3-2 up with around five minutes to go, Kilbirnie just couldn't see it out. It looks like it could be a long season for them if they don’t sort out their defence. Medda looked the more hungry team and just seemed to want the win more.

Irvine Meadow were the overall winners after beating Dalry 2-1 in the final. Two standout players in the Medda ranks were former Largs players George Sewell and Simon McBryde, both of whom played very well.

On Sunday I was at Cappielow for the Jimmy Cowan Cup final and the third/fourth place play-off.

This was a tournament for the 2008 age group, which I organised, and the good news is that the future looks bright with some sparkling young talent on show.

The winners were Port Glasgow Juniors, with Largs Thistle coming third. I really liked watching Largs. There are a few good players there, well coached by Derek Rooney. The whole team seemed to have a great attitude to the game. If you get a chance go and watch them.

At the opposite end of the scale, it was a hard shift for the Largs Thistle 35s, sponsored by Cullis Amusements, on Friday night, when we were beaten 6-2 by Glenburn. A depleted squad did not help matters with a number of boys missing, but the 12 who did turn up put up a good fight.

We lost a couple of early goals, with yours truly thinking he should have done better. The two Largs goals were scored by Mark Kilpatrick and Callum Kerr.

The Premier Sports Cup hadn't thrown up many shock scores until the third round of games on Saturday, with Hibernian's 1-0 loss to Kelty Hearts the major shock of the day.

Dundee United were in danger of missing out on the knockout stages, but they avoided another shock with a spectacular winner from Brandon Forbes to win 2-1 against an Ayr side who have caught the eye in pre-season with a win over Kilmarnock and a draw against Celtic.