Largs Thistle 1 Armadale Thistle 0 The Vikings had one poor away result. The perennial practitioners of pillage foundered when they travelled to Largs in 1263. This event is still celebrated in signs as one drives into what is now considered the acme of the douce seaside town. Yet one reflects that the Vikings could have had it even worse. They could have visited when Largs had a Junior team. Such is the past reputation of Junior fooball that it is reasonable to assume that a couple of centre halves and just one full-back would have been enough to see them off. Indeed, history shows that four players were sent off when Largs won their only Scottish Junior Cup, beating Glenafton at Ibrox in 1994. Much has changed. The ‘Theesel’ are now designated as a semi-professional outfit. They play swift, attacking football on an artificial surface. Their game is technical. Yet Saturday was a harking back to the past. Largs progressed to the semi-final of the Scottish Junior Cup after a game that was more siege than contest. Armadale, a second division East of Scotland team playing a premier league West of Scotland team, were outgunned if not outfought. They succumbed to a late winner after defiant defending in front of packed, raucous terraces. The game contained some of the traditional element of the Juniors. The fans were rowdy, the game was frantic and there were personalities and stories sprinkled by the sea. The ghost of philanthropy still stalks the ground, there was the man who saved the Thistle (not Armadale or Largs, but Partick), there was the president of the overseas supporters’ branch who braves the waves most weeks, there was a local hero who has won a world cup and there was the regular cadre of the committed who make sure the club endures and prospers. Ali McMaster, chairman of the club, is a member of that last category. His son, Laurie, has played for the club for 10 years, and he lured his father in. A commercial manager and quantity surveyor, McMaster senior is involved in preparing the club for an SFA licence. ‘Once I get my teeth into something I want to see it through,’ he says. Floodlights will be installed soon and the ground and the team is on the road to fulfilling an ambition. ‘I would like us to play in the senior Scottish Cup,’ says McMaster. ‘If we win the Junior cup we would go in automatically.’ He then invokes the ghosts of times past. Colin Weir, who won £161m in the EuroMillions in 2011, helped the club lay down the plastic pitch in 2012 with a gift thought to be £800,000. ‘He lived over there,’ says McMaster, pointing out over the ground. ‘He was a fan and we are still grateful to him.’ Weir died five years ago. We are sitting in the Legends Lounge and another name springs up. ‘Tommy Scoular died at 88 but he was a stalwart of this club. 'Last year he came up with an envelope and handed it to me, saying he was not well and could not go on holiday so he was passing on the envelope to the club. There was £2000 in it,’ says McMaster. He points out that there are so many who made contributions to the club and that the Legends Lounge will celebrate them in photographs and newspaper clippings. The man who helped save the Thistle strides into the ground bedecked in Largs colours. But Allan Cowan’s rescue efforts were played out in Maryhill not Ayrshire. He was a driving force in the campaign in the late nineties to save Thistle from liquidation. He became chairman and was on the board for 13 years. The future of Partick Thistle assured, the lawyer resigned in 2010. ‘It’s a big secret but Largs Thistle is my first team,’ he says. ‘I grew up down here and came to the games here as a boy and even went on the bus to away games. I just love Ayrshire Junior football and whenever I can I come to games and today is obviously a big one.’ Cowan, 68, has been going to Largs games ‘since I was a wee boy’. He adds: ‘I don’t come so often now as I tend to go to Partick Thistle but I try to get down at least once a season.’ His scarf dates back to the Scottish Junior Cup final defeat to Linlithgow Rose at Rugby Park in 2010. But he has one memory that goes back more than half a century. ‘My first season ticket when I was about 12 was 50p,’ he says. John Conway, 78, sits on a bench, reading a newspaper, after a journey across the water. ‘I always say I am a proud member of the overseas branch. There are three or four of us.’ This group travels on the ferry from Millport. ‘It only takes 15 minutes and it is a nice wee walk up to the ground. I have been doing it for 22 years since I moved down from the Paisley area.’ He loves the Juniors. ‘I come here for most home games and I even travel to away games but I have to watch as my last ferry is 8.15 so I don’t want to be stranded. If Thistle are playing in Dundee or such like I will go to a game at Ardrossan, Kilbirnie, Beith, Irvine or wherever,’ he says. ‘I suppose it is a lot of ferry trips over the years but my ticket is only £1.50. I love cycling and fishing but this is my Saturday.’ THE Scottish Junior Cup brings back memories for George Wall, 66. ‘Games like today, when you see the crowds and feel the excitement, you just want to be out on the park and playing,’ says Wall, who came on as a substitute when Largs won the cup in 1994. He still pulls on the boots. ‘I play for Largs Thistle in the over-35s, I play with Northern Ireland international veteran teams over-55s, over-60s, now over-65s. I am an over-65 world champion. We won it in Manchester last year and it was a five-a-side competition organised by FIFA. We are going out to Zurich in May to defend it.’ One can take the Junior out of Junior football but some traits remain. ‘I got sent off in the World Cup final,’ admits Wall. ‘But I still won man of the match.’ The Scottish Cup win remains with him. ‘I recall it all from the first round,’ he says. ‘We were just about out against St Anthony’s in the second round, so it wasn’t all about the one game.’ He adds: ‘I was the most relaxed guy about the cup final ever. I was either going to be on the bench or not getting stripped.’ He came on after captain Jimmy Murray was sent off. ‘We were under pressure so I came on to do my bit. I almost was the first to lift the cup. 'Jimmy was standing at the side in tears and they said to me to lift it because I had been at the club for 10 years. But Jimmy went up to collect it finally and that led to a fine by the authorities because he should not have been allowed to.’ That final remains the best sporting memory for Drew Cochrane, 72, who was editor of Largs and Millport News for 40 years. ‘I started off my working life as a waiter in Nardini’s in my school years,’ he says. ‘The cup win was glorious but I have a wee feeling about this year. Things have developed so well at Barrfields and it is now a real community club. A cup would be a nice wee bonus.’ That is now just two matches away. The battle of 2025 ended in a home victory. There were bodies of the invaders lying on the grass as Armadale players slumped in fatigue. The ground rumbled to the roars of triumph and defiance. Largs Thistle march on.