MEADOW SCOOP TITLE!

Stewart McConnell 1526 - 1526 • Published 3 Jun 2009 11:31

Pollok lose out at last minute to Irvine

ON a night of high drama Irvine Meadow were seven minutes away from settling for runner-up spot in the Super Premier Division as Pollok led Scottish Cup winners Auchinleck Talbot 1-0 on Tuesday.

However, a stunning comeback from the hosts saw former Meadow striker David Gillies score twice and Steven White once to clinch victory and hand the title to their fellow Ayrshiremen for the first time.

It was the best moment of Meadow boss Chris Strain"s managerial career and as he basked in the glory he praised the players for their efforts.

Aside from earning them one of the top prizes in the Junior game, the title triumph also earns Meadow an automatic berth in the opening round of next season"s senior Scottish Cup with the boss now hoping to make progress and earn a glamour tie.

Strain, who took in the game with a number of his players on Tuesday said his team were worthy champions and was indebted to Tommy Sloan"s team who were playing only 48 hours after lifting their second Citylink Scottish Cup crown inside four years.

He told Sportscene: 'It"s a great feeling and this is the highlight of my managerial career. Fair play to Auchinleck Talbot for playing so well, they left some players out but got the result. Over the piece I would say we deserved to win the title, we beat Talbot and Arthurlie both home and away and Pollok twice. The win at Pollok a few weeks ago was crucial.

'We had a great run in the league, losing only one of our last 13 games and it"s great to win the title in only our second season back in the Premier Division and just the third since it started. We have been very consistent and if we suffered a defeat we had the ability to bounce right back. These guys don"t know when they"re beaten, we have a great team spirit and there is confidence in the squad. I know Meadow have won Ayrshire Leagues before and all respect to them but this is a much bigger success. The Scottish Cup place was also a huge incentive for us and it would be good if we could get a winnable tie in the opening round and who knows if we make more progress possibly a tie against either of the Old Firm.

'The good thing about the senior Scottish Cup is that there will be no pressure on us, we will not be the favourites so that is something we can enjoy.'

Meadow can now look forward to a clash of the champions as they take on Talbot in the Ayrshire Weekly Press Cup Final at Cumnock"s Townhead Park on Saturday. They will be presented with the league trophy at 1.45pm with the game kicking off at 2pm.

Strain said: 'There should be a real party atmosphere at the match and we should have a big crowd given what the two teams have achieved. Hopefully we can go on and win the trophy. We can also look forward to next season and there won"t be wholesale changes, I would say we need a couple of new faces and that will be all.'

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