The first round of the Houliston cup went ahead on Sunday, with the closest thing to a cup shock seeing First Division leaders FC Annan knock out their Premier Rivals Annan Town by the odd goal in five. Lewis Peacock opened the scoring for Town but FC turned it round with Ryan Riches levelling, Mark Leesing putting them ahead and Chris Norval adding a third before Davey Rowan pulled one back for Town. Ruthwell Rovers went ahead against Five Arches Bombers with Luca Pagani scoring but the Premier team showed their class to come back with strikes from Graeme Maxwell, Russel Jardine and Jack Ogston seeing them through. Dumfries Athletic started 2018 with an important win after falling behind to a Matty Thomson goal at Scaur. Stuart Wight bagged a leveller in the first half then Ali Baird put Dumfries ahead in the second and an Own Goal extended their lead and Cain McKie scored a cracking effort to give them breathing space. Scaur netted a late consolation through Ross Lockhart. Nithside eased past Park Thistle, as they were simply more clinical with a Jordan Barker double and goals from Jason Kirkwood, Shaun Kirk, Sean Potts and Kyle Robinson. Chris Bailey had pulled it back to 3-1 for park but NIthside scored three in the last ten minutes to put a gloss on the scoreline. Normandy Star were also ruthless against First Division Summerhill. a Mark Cravens hat trick was added to by Tommy Goss, Cammy Sinclair, Aaron Halliday and Jordan Patterson. Sands knew it would be damage limitation against Palmerston Colts and Ross Kerr scored three, Darren Kerr got two and Gary Kerr, Liam Malcolm and Bobby Brown all pitched in with goals. Hole in the Wa were the only side to reach double figures with Allan Hunter hitting four and Mark Zutic and Islam Kadyrov both bagging braces in their tie with Morton Youth after Dale Talaszko had opened the scoring, and Kris Shannon brought up the ten. Next week will see the Annual Soccer sixes at the Queen of the South Arena with 20 teams representing 16 clubs.