HUGHIE Strain is a well-respected Irvine Meadow fan, who can be heard expressing his opinion most Saturdays during the football season.

But he is perhaps better known as being the older brother of Chris, who first served Meadow as a player, then managed the Medda through one of the most trophy-laden spells in the club’s history.

But when Hughie took his seat at a recent Medda Memories session in the club lounge, he launched into a fascinating account of his own playing career in the 1950s.

The story began with an invitation from Meadow’s legendary boss Bob Alexander, when Hughie was just 12½.

“Bob Alexander came to the house and asked me if I’d like to play for an under age team so I went to Saxone at the beginning of the following season and I was to play for the Under-16 team. I turned up but the Under-16s were playing away, so I had to play for the Under-18s. The score was 13-0, we won, but I never got a kick of the ball, so I thought that was me by. But I played with the Under-16s for three or four years and won quite a few medals. I started training with the Meadow when I was about 13 because it was awkward for me to get to Kilmarnock. Then I signed for the Meadow in 1957," he recalled.

The young right-half’s strengths as a player were his passing and vision and one of the team-mates who benefited from those passes was right-winger Bobby Carroll, who scored an incredible 75 goals in season 1958-59, many set up by Hughie.

“Bobby was easy to play to, because he was very fast and direct. I just put the ball in front of him, "he reflected.

Hughie quickly settled into the Meadow team and in his debut season played in the Irvine and District Cup final, scoring as Meadow beat Annbank United 7-2. He was also in the team when Meadow beat Whitletts Victoria in the Western League decider.

The following season Hughie, by now playing at inside right featured in a friendly against Birmingham City, when Meadow famously flew down from Renfrew airport to the Midlands. Meadow produced a tremendous performance at St Andrews Park, before losing out to a last minute penalty as they went down 4-3.

“I remember the size of the park,” said Hughie. “It was just enormous, but there wasn’t much grass, which was pretty disappointing.”

The previous weekend Meadow had beaten Blairgowrie in a tough Scottish Cup replay. In the first game at Meadow Park, Bobby Carroll had been kicked up and down the park, so Bob Alexander came up with a ploy to protect him. He switched the attacking positions putting Hughie to Carroll’s position on the wing:

“He gave me the seven jersey, so I got the kicking” recalled Hughie.

That season Hughie played a vital part in the club’s triumphant Scottish Cup run, which took them all the way to the final, but a bad injury in an Ayrshire Cup match against Largs Thistle robbed him of his place in both the semi-final and final at Hampden Park.

“After the game at Birmingham, I said to Bobby Carroll I felt a twinge in my knee. Bob Alexander sent me to a physio, who said I had strained my knee ligaments. He said to give it a couple of weeks’ rest. I told Bob and he sent me for two hours’ physiotherapy. I said my leg was roasting. So Bob said, well, you’ll be playing! He told our trainer to put two bandages on - one on the bad knee and one on the good knee, so they wouldn’t know which knee to kick.

"The game was a draw and in the replay I went to pass the ball and the Largs left back came flying through the air and banged my knee. I went down in a heap. I was carried off the park. Bob said, get a bandage round it and get back on. And I couldnae walk! So, they put me on the wing and the ball came to me. When I made a move to it, I crumpled in a heap and that was me more or less by for the season," he added.

Several senior clubs had their eye on the talented Hughie as a potential signing. When he was nearly 16, Dundee had offered to let him play in their youth team. Then after he joined Meadow, Cardiff City invited him for a week’s training. “I met some great players. John Charles was back from Italy and his brother Mel was there. I played a couple of bounce matches and they wanted to sign me and were going to put me in a joiner’s shop or in the shipyards, but I didnae fancy going down there at that age. Celtic came in for me just before I went to Cardiff, but I came back and got my injury. Burnley spoke to me, too.”

Hughie, who was never booked in his career, said; “Referees were more lenient then. They could speak to players and you could even have a wee swear at the referees in those days.”