The following post was kindly submitted to us by Gordon McCreath, who is a keen Ayrshire junior football historian.
I’ve often heard the Ayrshire Regional League Cup being referred to as a competition that “didnae maitter onyway” … usually after the Medda has been unexpectedly knocked out of it. To be fair it was never one of the high prestige competitions like the Scottish Junior Cup or the West of Scotland Cup, but in 1970-71 Meadow’s League Cup section was packed with goals, drama and controversy.
Meadow opened their sectional games with a co mfortable 3-0 home win against Kilwinning Rangers, thanks to goals from Busby, Peebles and Ferguson. They followed that up with another home win — this time 2-1, against Irvine Victoria — in a game that doubled up as the Marymass derby. However, the first of the away fixtures turned out badly, with Meadow losing 0-3 in a game that presumably “didnae maitter onyway.”
After beating Troon by a solitary goal at Portland Park, Meadow hosted Ardeer Thistle, who seemed to be shaping up as Meadow’s main rival in the group. Everything seemed to be going Meadow’s way during the Wednesday evening match. They were in complete control and scoring freely, then hard-as-nails captain, Jim Clunie, went down in a tackle near the halfway line. Club physio, Dunky Black, ran on with his magic sponge but after a short while indicated a substitution was necessary. With Dunky giving support, Jim walked round the pitch and sat in the dugout. The injury was later diagnosed as a broken leg. But the drama was not over. With Meadow leading 6-1 and only seven minutes left to play, the referee abandoned the match due to failing light. Meadow officials protested in the gloom that they could see from one goal to the other, but the referee’s mind was made up. A replay would be required.
The following midweek Meadow took the field at Victoria Park in atrocious weather conditions. The rain driving in off the sea and the strong wind turned the fixture into the classic game of two halves. With the elements acting almost as two extra players, Irvine Vics lead 3-1 at the interval and it should have been more, but for some “right bad finishing” (The Irvine Herald).
Meadow’s attacking play was wind assisted after the break, and they used the elements to their advantage. Soon the goals were raining in. Ronnie Bitten and David Malone levelled the scores at 3-3, before Busby’s shot took a bad bounce and beat the ’keeper to put Meadow into the lead. Malone scored a fifth from a scramble following Busby’s corner into the lead. Another corner from Busby was headed across goal by Jim “Skull” Peebles for Malone to knock into the net. Meadow completed the scoring when Peebles crossed for Busby to push the ball home from close range to make the final score an amazing 7-4.
Most fans would have assumed that after the drama of the previous two matches that the action in the remaining fixtures would return to a normal level. How wrong they were!
On Saturday, 12th August Meadow travelled to Abbey Park for the return match against Kilwinning Rangers. Meadow started well and went ahead through Busby’s close-range goal after three minutes. The visitors missed good chances to increase the lead, before Joe McEvoy in a weak attempt to clear the ball, gave it away to Wilson. He then lunged in and handled the ball as the Kilwinning striker was about to shoot. Ian Hawkshaw smashed the penalty kick past Hay in the Meadow goal. Right at the end of the half, Kilwinning took the lead when Hawkshaw was in the right place to convert Wilson’s header across goal.
The teams came out for the second half and began warming up for the second 45 minutes. Like many goalkeepers did, Ian Hay jumped up, caught the crossbar and began swinging on it. There was an ominous crack and the goalposts collapsed. The bar was broken and one of the posts had splintered near the base.
The referee gave Buffs officials 15 minutes to repair the damage but despite their best efforts, they were unsuccessful. The referee abandoned the match, much to the displeasure of the home fans and everyone assumed the match would be replayed.
Robert Lewis, who played for the Buffs in that match, recalls: “As far as I remember we were on top in that game and we felt it was our chance to beat the Medda. Our reaction was total astonishment. Nobody had ever heard of this happening before and we felt cheated. Ian Hay got pelters from the Buffs fans, I remember that.”
A young Eric Morris was at outside-left in the Troon team that came to Meadow Park for what would normally have been the last group match. Eric, like the Buffs’ Robert Lewis, would soon join Meadow and become important members of the 1973 Scottish Cup-winning squad. The left winger almost put Troon ahead, as reported in the Irvine Times: “The visitors made most of the early running with Morris nearly putting them one up in the opening minutes when a long drive almost caught the Meadow ‘keeper unawares.” Meadow, however, ran out 4-1 winners.
That left only the two abandoned fixtures to be dealt with. The surprising decision was made by the authorities not to replay the game against Kilwinning. The game with Ardeer Thistle, who still had a chance to win the group, was replayed on October 17th and Meadow romped to a 6-0 victory.
As group winner, Meadow qualified for the semi-finals and found themselves paired with Cumnock. The South Ayrshire side was too good for Meadow on the day and thrashed them 6-1. Well, it was the League Cup and it “didnae maitter onyway.”