Irvine Meadow have had a lot of success over the years in the West of Scotland Cup, winning the prestigious trophy nine times. But surely the Meadow team that had to work hardest for their West of Scotland success, was the 1962 side who beat Greenock Juniors in the final.
That year the West of Scotland Cup final was played on 16th June at Shawfield Stadium in Glasgow, which was the home of Clyde FC in those days, and drew what was a rather disappointing crowd for the time of under 5,000. The good summer weather attracting people to the coast and the Ayr races were cited in the local press as reasons for the sparsely populated terracing.
The eleven players who ran out for Meadow that Saturday afternoon were (in the standard 2-3-5 formation favoured by newspapers at the time: Prentice; Miller and McVean; Dickie, Curran and McIntyre; Bowie, Garvey, Murray, Hodgson and Walker.
Meadow XI started the final in great form and looked to be well on their way to winning the trophy. Right from the kick-off, they began to put pressure on the Greenock defence. As The Irvine Herald reporter pointed out, ‘Meadow’s pressure was bound to tell and it was, therefore, no surprise when Garvey, following good play by Bowie and Dickie, opened the scoring to give the Ayrshire side a well-deserved lead.
‘The best goal of the match, however, came from Johnnie McIntyre who, after a mazy run, when he beat several opponents, had his counter disallowed by the referee, who had blown for an infringement against the left half, when it would have been better for Meadow had the advantage rule been observed. The referee was booed for this decision.’
There was nothing unusual about the referee being booed, but soon he was called into action again and the jeers turned to cheers. “Meadow continued to attack and when Bowie burst through the defence and was about to shoot from close range Laing tripped him from behind and Miller scored from the resultant penalty kick.
‘On pressure Meadow should have had a larger margin than 2-0 at half time, as the result is not a true reflection on the play.’
Meadow couldn’t keep their good form going after the break, however, and Greenock Juniors scored twice, giving Meadow’s goalkeeper Ian Prentice no chance on either occasion. So, at the end of 90 minutes, it was 2-2. There was no extra time to some people’s surprise and a replay was required. But this was the last day of the Junior season and astonishingly the replay, also at Shawfield Stadium, was scheduled for 7.30 p.m. the same evening!
Again, The Irvine Herald takes up the story. ‘In the replay the same evening at 7.30, Irvine Meadow were in sparkling form and scored four goals without reply. They had just one change, Murray dropping out, and Garvey, who was inside right in the afternoon, taking his place at centre. Brannan took over from Garvey. In the first half, Walker and Garvey scored, and after the interval Bowie and Brannan were the marksmen. Meadow were definitely the fresher team and finished up worthy winners.’
The Irvine Herald reporter who was covering the match praised the whole team but singled out William Garvey, who ‘had one of his best games’ and Johnnie McIntyre, ‘who was the ideal captain, and an inspiration to his side. He, like Curran, centre half, never put a wrong foot forward.
It was also reported that the Meadow fans who travelled to Shawfield Stadium to support their team in the cup final and were unable to remain until the evening match, missed a real treat becauseMeadow played one of their finest games this season. It was suggested that some of the Meadow fans who attended the first game didn’t even know that the replay was to be the same evening and travelled home to Irvine completely unaware that they were missing their team trouncing Greenock 4-0 and winning the West of Scotland Cup.
David Brown remembers being at the cup final as a fourteen-year-old schoolboy. As was usual before away matches, he went to the Palace Cinema in the Bridgegate on the Thursday evening to buy his ticket for the supporters’ bus. He travelled up to Glasgow with Seth Findlay and Jimmy Kilpatrick, and after the drawn match those who had arrived on the bus knew that the replay would be the same evening. In those days, of course, there were no mobile phones, so David wasn’t able to contact his mum to let her know he was going to be arriving home a few hours later than planned. David recalls going for fish and chips in the time between the two games and that the crowd for the replay was much smaller. And I’m sure there was a twinkle in David’s eye when he remembered the Irvine Meadow captain, Johnnie McIntyre, raise the West of Scotland Cup above his head after a hard day’s work