It’s a festive derby day for The Buffs this weekend as they make the short journey to Meadow Park to face rivals Irvine Meadow XI FC in a game that means so much to both sets of fans, especially with the game coming at such a pivotal point in the season.
“The Medda” began life as a club in 1897 and have played their home matches at Meadow Park since being founded 127 years ago. Meadow Park has a capacity of approximately 4364 including a main stand that has 490 seats. Despite a lack of recent success, Medda remain as one of Scottish junior football’s household names with the club boasting many honours such as 3 Scottish Junior Cup wins and 9 West of Scotland Cup’s.
After finishing bottom of the WOSFL Premier Division and subsequently being relegated last season, expectations would have been high for Ben Carson’s Medda, but positive league results have, so far, been very hard to come by for the Irvine side. After 10 matches Medda have only been able to earn 8 points leaving them in 14th place after just 2 league wins against Kilbirnie Ladeside and Renfrew FC this campaign. Medda are, in fact, yet to pick up a point at home in the league this season, however, have only been beaten by more than 1 goal twice so far in the division. This is the first match between the sides in over a year, with Irvine Meadow picking up a victory on penalties in the Eglinton Cup on the day. You would have to go back to December 2022 for the last league meeting between the clubs which The Buffs won 4-2 just 5 months after beating The Medda 1-3 on the opening day of the season. Similar to The Buffs, Irvine Meadow have struggled going forward this season with Lewis Neilson currently sitting as club top scorer with 3 league goals. Ex-Buffs men, goalkeeper, Jamie Barclay and, midfielder, David Anderson play for The Medda and will undoubtably be up for the game on Saturday. Looking to the form table, The Buffs sit in 2nd place after winning 12 points in their previous 6 matches with Medda sitting 13th with 5 points in 6. Buffs have a good recent record in the derby and will be hoping that they can produce a similar performance as they did last week which seen them dominate Thorniewood and eventually after many missed chances win the game 1-0.
Kevin Kelly will get his first taste of the derby as Buffs manager this weekend, and he will definitely be hoping his side can put in a strong performance to get one over on his Ayrshire rivals whilst also keeping the club’s recent unbeaten league record to carry on moving up the table towards the promotion spots.
