It was just a run-of-the-mill league game, played out at Dreghorn’s Fordside Park in 1967/68. The atrocious weather was spoiling the play, but the players battled through the wind and rain and gave the rain-soaked fans something to occupy their thoughts on that miserable Saturday afternoon.
Before the kick-off a minute’s silence was observed in memory of Mr James McBlane who looked after the Fordside pitch and who, apart from that did a power of work for the club. However, as it turned out, the game developed into a quite extraordinary encounter, although no one could possibly have thought that when the referee blew his whistle to signal the end of the first 45 minutes.
Dreghorn were playing well and came very close to taking the lead when Evans slammed a free kick against the goal frame. The shot left Joe Cassidy well beaten, but hit the underside of the crossbar and rebounded down just short of the goal line. Two Dreghorn forwards dithered over the “sitter” and gave the ever alert Cassidy the time to dive onto the ball and diffuse the situation. Shortly before the break, Melrose, Dreghorn’s outside-left, fired in a shot at goal and placed it just out of Cassidy’s reach to give “The Villagers” a 1-0 half-time lead.
There was a change in the Dreghorn line-up at the start of the second half. McCall had picked up an injury in the first half and was replaced by Jamieson.
Meadow had the wind behind them now and were beginning to dominate possession and push Dreghorn back into their own half. At one point they forced four corners, one after the other but couldn’t find a way through the well organised home defence.
Cowan of Dreghorn had to go off, and as they had already used the one substitute they were allowed in those days, they had to play on with only ten players.
With just over an hour played Willie Frew powered a shot at goal, but a Dreghorn defender in attempting to clear headed into his own goal to make the score 1-1. Nine minutes later McGuiness headed into the net to put Meadow into the lead for the first time.
At this point people began to notice something very strange. Dreghorn seemed to be losing players. A quick count showed they had only eight men on the pitch. With three men extra Meadow were in complete control and it wasn’t long before Jake McPherson scored Meadow’s third goal. McGuiness netted Meadow’s fourth after strolling through what was left of Dreghorn’s defence.
The sharp-eyed amongst the fans would have noticed that Meadow played much of the second half with no goalkeeper. The ‘keeper, Joe Cassidy, had left his goal area unguarded and sneaked off shortly after the break to shelter from the elements.
Eventually, the referee noticed that there was something wrong and that three players had simply disappeared from the pitch. When he confirmed the shortage of players, and taking the high wind and torrential rain into account, he decided that enough was enough and abandoned the game.
When the referee got back to the shelter of the clubhouse he was met by a delegation of Meadow officials protesting that there was no reason to abandon the game with only ten minutes still to play as the conditions were no worse than they had been in the rest of the game.
“I remember,” Joe Cassidy the Meadow goalkeeper recalled, “to the right of the clubhouse there was a big bush and the snow and rain was coming down and I went and sheltered there, watching the game. I spent most of the second half sheltering off the park. The referee never noticed and never said a thing. It was quite a place to go and play. It really was an experience. In these days goalkeepers used to play with no gloves so it was pretty chilly.”
Dreghorn Juniors:- Miller; McCall, Evans; Haswell, Simpson, Hannah; Cowan, McPike, Wilson, McMulkin, Melrose.
Irvine Meadow XI:- Cassidy; Smillie, McEvoy; McConville, Lindsay, Frew; Maxwell, McIntyre, McGuiness, McPherson, O’May.
“I’ll tell you about another game at Dreghorn, although I wasn’t playing in it” Joe continued, “A Dreghorn player floored Jim Clunie. And I remember big Wullie Frew came running across, tanned, sleeves rolled up, picking the Dreghorn player up with one hand and shaking him like a rag doll. I’ve never see as much fear in a player’s face as that he had that day. It was an experience to go to Dreghorn.”
Readers who don’t know Joe as a footballer may recall buying groceries from him after he took over George Donaldson’s shop in Thornhouse Avenue, or sampling one of his excellent burgers from “Joe’s” at Ayr Harbour.