BRIAN HERON watched his Port Glasgow side lose by five goals at Largs last Saturday and realised his side were in dire need of a confidence-boosting win.

So who do they play in tomorrow's West Cup first round? Yes, that's right, Largs. You couldn't make it up.

But an upbeat Heron is looking forward to the match, safe in the knowledge his under-fire side will at last be able to play at home.

He explained: "The last few weeks have been a nightmare with the council on strike, which has meant we haven't been able to train or play on our own pitch.

"It's not ideal, but I'm certainly not using it as an excuse. If you're good enough, you should be able to win football matches just about anywhere.

"We may have lost our first four league games but none of our opponents have really outplayed us - apart from Largs, who were simply awesome. So, would I have chosen to play them again so soon after losing heavily last week? Probably not! But we are, and we'll just have to deal with it."

The league table doesn't make good reading for Port fans at the moment, with his newly-promoted side occupying joint-bottom spot with fellow strugglers Hurlford.

However, they say the table doesn't lie - although in this case it just about does! The Port have so far played Girvan, Annbank, Kilsyth and Largs - all away from home.

And while most other sides have been out pounding the streets, or training on a 'real' football pitch, Heron has been forced to scrimp and scrape best he could. And he revealed how his players will at least pack a better punch tomorrow.

He said: "I didn't want the boys becoming idle so I arranged for us to go up to the Victoria Boxing' Club in Port Glasgow, which at least allowed the players to work on their upper body strength and general fitness, but it's certainly no substitute for proper training."

Heron added: "While tomorrow's game is important, it's vital we start putting some league points on the board. The last thing we want to be doing is playing catch-up come Christmas.

"Our next league game is at home to Lanark - and they just happen to be top of the league at the moment. But that's the way I like it. It's a tough league and we always wanted to be here, to pit our wits against better teams.

"So we'll just get on with it and give it our best, although if the truth be told, I'm still trying to settle on a formula that really suits the players we have."

Heron is sweating on the fitness of Scott Banks, who suffered a knock at the weekend, and Ryan Watt, who hasn't managed to train all week.

He will also be leave out Tam Jamieson, whom he signed from Largs. as part of a gentleman's agreement.