Irvine Meadow XI Football Club is a Scottish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club, based in

Irvine, North Ayrshire Irvine ( ; sco, Irvin,
gd, Irbhinn, IPA: strips.

History

Formed in 1897, they are one of the most successful Junior clubs still playing. Of the two clubs in

Irvine Irvine may refer to: Places On Earth Antarctica *Irvine Glacier *Mount Irvine (Antarctica) Australia *Irvine Island *Mount Irvine, New South Wales Canada *Irvine, Alberta * Irvine Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom *Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotla ...

, the other being Irvine Victoria, they are the larger. Meadow have set many attendance records at other Junior clubs' grounds and were at one stage invited to turn senior and play in the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

. They decided to remain in the 'juniors' and at present compete in the Western Region Junior League. Irvine Meadow's closest rivals are Kilwinning Rangers, based in the neighbouring town of Kilwinning, and Irvine Victoria who play on the other side of the River Irvine at Victoria Park. An annual derby fixture is played each August to coincide with Irvine's Marymass Festival. After recent dominance in the fixture over the past decade, Meadow lost 3–1 at Victoria Park in 2017, the first time in 11 years that they had not won the match. In recent times, Irvine Meadow have another rivalry with

Auchinleck Talbot Auchinleck Talbot Football Club is a Scottish football club based in Auchinleck, East Ayrshire. They currently play in the . The club is also a member of the Scottish Junior Football Association, and have won the Scottish Junior Cup on a reco ...

, with the two often contending against each other for the regional title and cups. Talbot are sometimes regarded as Meadow's largest rivals, despite the distance between the two clubs within Ayrshire. In 1933, the club played two minor cup finals and the replay of one of those over two days due to fixture congestion at the end of the season, winning both (they also won the regional league and another cup that year). Meadow were the first junior club in Scotland to have a home game televised when the 1958 Scottish Junior Cup tie against

Fauldhouse United Fauldhouse United Football Club are a Scottish football club based at Park View in Fauldhouse, West Lothian. The club won the Scottish Junior Cup in 1946 and currently play in the East of Scotland Football League The East of Scotland Foo ...

was shown on

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. They are the only junior football club to have travelled by air to a game when they went to St. Andrew's stadium to play

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in a match in which they lost 4–3. Between 2006 and 2012, Meadow bought players from senior teams such as

Brian McGinty Brian McGinty (born 10 December 1976) is a Scottish former professional footballer. After beginning his career with Rangers in the Scottish Football League Premier Division he later played league football in both Scotland and England. Career B ...

and

Mark Crilly Mark Crilly (born 23 May 1980), is a Scottish professional footballer who was most recently co-manager of Junior side Kilbirnie Ladeside. Crilly began his senior career with Ayr United in 1998. He went on to play for Dumbarton, Stirling Albio ...

and did well in the Scottish Junior Cup, as well as winning promotion from the Ayrshire League in 2005–06 and from Super League Division One in 2006–07. They have had a successful period in the subsequent years with Stagecoach West Premier Super League titles in 2008–09, 2010–11 and 2011–12 as well as Evening Times and West of Scotland Cup wins. On 28 November 2009, Meadow became the first junior club to defeat

opposition in a competitive fixture when they beat

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1–0 in the third round of the

2009–10 Scottish Cup The 2009–10 Scottish Cup was the 125th season of Scotland's most prestigious Association football, football knockout competition. The competition was sponsored by the Scottish Government and for sponsorship reasons was known as the Active Natio ...

in front of a crowd of over 1,100. The club were then drawn away to

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side Hibernian in the fourth round. The game, which took place on 9 January 2010, was arguably the biggest game in the club's history. Irvine lost 3–0, but the club stood to make in the region of £55,000 from this fixture, and an estimated 2,000 Meadow fans made the journey to

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. In the 2011–12 season, Meadow reached the third round of the Scottish Cup, where they hosted First Division side

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at Meadow Park. The tie took place on 19 November 2011. Meadow were well beaten 6–0. Former players Gareth Turner and Michael Wardrope were appointed as the new management team in May 2016 to replace the departing Davie Greig, and the pair took charge for the start of the 2016–17 season. On 25 October 2017, the new management of Brian McGinty and Stevie Aitchison took over. In June 2018, Irvine Meadow gained promotion via the play-offs to the West Region Premiership for the 2018–19 season.

resigned as manager on 28 January 2020. In September 2023, former Irvine Meadow player Martin Ferry was appointed to the role of manager. Ferry will be assisted in his managerial duties by his long standing colleague Des Roache. Des, himself a former Scottish Commonwealth runner and referee. The new management team have indicated they are excited about the task ahead and look forward to introducing a 'Winning Mentality' to Medda Park in the season ahead. The club moved to the senior West of Scotland Football League along with all other West Region Junior teams in 2020. Floodlights were installed at Meadow Park in February 2021 to meet SFA licensing criteria.

Current squad

Honours

Major competitions

* Scottish Junior Cup ** Winners (3): 1958–59, 1962–63, 1972–73 ** Runners-up: 1947–48, 1950–51 *

SJFA West Region Premiership The SJFA West Region Premiership (also known as the McBookie.com West Region Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was a semi-professional football league run by the West Region of the Scottish Junior Football Association, and was the highest tier ...

** Champions (3): 2008–09,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, 2011–12

Minor competitions

* West of Scotland Cup: 1931–32, 1950–51, 1955–56, 1961–62, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1989–90, 2009–10, 2011–12 * Western League / Ayrshire First Division: 1921–22, 1932–33, 1948–49, 1950–51, 1954–55, 1956–57, 1957–58, 1960–61, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1988–89, 1993–94 * Western Intermediate League: 1928–29 * Ayrshire Second Division: 1998–99 * Stagecoach Ayrshire League: 2005–06 * Ayrshire Cup: 1898–99, 1900–01, 1903–04, 1913–14, 1931–32, 1953–54, 1957–58, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1983–84, 1984–85, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2010–11 * Ayrshire League Cup: 1927–28, 1928–29, 1950–51, 1954–55, 1955–56, 1961–62, 1982–83 * Ayrshire District Cup: 1899–1900, 1903–04, 1909–10, 1913–14, 1914–15, 1932–33, 1938–39, 1946–47, 1950–51, 1951–52, 1954–55, 1955–56, 1957–58, 1970–71, 1976–77, 1977–78, 1981–82, 1987–88 * Cunninghame District Cup: 1982–83, 1983–84, 1985–86, 1987–88, 1991–92, 1994–95 * North Ayrshire Cup: 1996–97, 2002–03 * Western Intermediate League Cup: 1927–28, 1928–29 * Irvine & District League: 1910–11 * Dryborough Cup 1972–73 * Ayrshire Consolation Cup: 1914–15, 1915–16, 1932–33 * Ayrshire Charity Cup: 1934–35 * Moore Trophy 1932–33, 1938–39 * Vernon Trophy: 1949–50, 1952–53, 1960–61 * Irvine Herald Cup: 1898–99, 1914–15, 1924–25 * St Vincent de Paul Cup:1933–34 * Evening Times Super Cup 2005–06, 2009–2010 * Stagecoach Super League First Division: 2006–07 * Kerr & Smith League Cup: 2003–04

References

External links

*
Video clip
from 1973 Scottish Junior Cup Final, hosted by

National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS) ( gd, Leabharlann Nàiseanta na h-Alba, sco, Naitional Leebrar o Scotland) is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. As one of the largest libraries in the ...

{{SJFA West Region Football clubs in Scotland Scottish Junior Football Association clubs Football in North Ayrshire Association football clubs established in 1897 1897 establishments in Scotland Irvine, North Ayrshire West of Scotland Football League teams