The following post was kindly submitted to us by Gordon McCreath, who is a keen Ayrshire junior football historian.
When Irvine Meadow ran out at Newlandsfield Park in front of a crowd of 1,100 on a sunny Wednesday evening in 1990, they were looking to win the West of Scotland Cup for the seventh time. There had been a gap of nineteen years since the previous success in the competition, so when they beat Dalry Thistle in the semi final it gave the club the opportunity to fill that long-vacant space in the trophy cabinet.
Graham Scott, writing a match preview in the Evening Times, had made final opponents, Larkhall Thistle, favourites to take the cup home, but, after a former Miss Scotland had performed the ceremonial “kick off,” Medda had the Lanarkshire team on the back foot right from the start.
Nigel McCreath passed a late fitness test and made an unexpected start, but had a comfortable first half in the centre of the defence as almost all the action was at the other end of the park. Meadow made a whirlwind start with Robert McCrystal and Gary Faulds coming close. The striker continued to pose problems for the Larkhall defence and was involved in the second goal, “ livewire Faulds was soon on the offensive again, forcing Scott Gemmell into conceding a corner kick and when Alan Garrett’s kick came over midfielder Craig McCallum rose to head just wide on Murray Bowman’s right hand post.” (The Irvine Times)
Meadow’s opening goal was only delayed until the sixth minute, when player-manager Neil Muggins slipped a free kick to Alan Garrett. The winger slipped between two defenders, saw the keeper coming off his line in anticipation of a cross and smashed a low shot past him into the net.
On the half hour mark Meadow went further ahead when Gary Faulds, playing his best game of the season, won a near post header and flicked the ball on for Murray Phillips to nod into the Larkhall net. Shortly before half time it was 3-0. After regular penalty taker, Neil Muggins, had missed a spot kick in the semi final, Gary Faulds took responsibility in the final and lashed the ball high into the top corner after the referee had blown for handball.
Larkhall made two substitutions at half time in an attempt to get back into the game but it didn’t make enough of a difference and in the 58th minute Meadow went even further ahead. “Murray Phillips leapt to meet a Muggins free and send a looping header well beyond the despairing Bowman.” (The Irvine Times)
With a 4-0 lead, Meadow understandably took their foot off the accelerator as they played out time. Larkhall took advantage of that and pulled back a consolation goal when Bulloch knocked the ball past Jim “Bomber” Brown to make the final score 4-1.
The cup-winning Meadow team: Brown; Ferry, Muggins, McCreath (capt.), McGee; Phillips, McCallum, Russell; Garrett, Faulds, McCrystal. Subs: McNeil and Yule.
After the final whistle Meadow skipper Nigel McCreath held the West of Scotland cup high over his head as the fans cheered, and all-action midfielder Craig McCallum was named sponsor’s Man of the Match.
Neil Muggins, who had been in charge of the team for only six months, paid tribute to two of his cup heroes who were retiring after the final, “It was great to see Nigel McCreath and Tommy Yule bow out at the top with winners’ medals.” (The Irvine Herald)
Club Secretary Terry Mcdonald was thrilled by not only the win, but also the manner of it. “That’s the best display of football I’ve seen from a Meadow side for a long, long time. It was a terrific performance. But I’m doubly pleased for the fans. Not only did we win the cup, but we won it in tremendous style.” It had been a long wait for the West of Scotland Cup to come back to Meadow Park, but no one at the time could have known that it would be even longer before it was back in Irvine again. It was twenty years before Meadow beat Kirkintilloch Rob Roy, also at Pollok’s Newlandsfield Park, to win the cup for the eighth time.