AS A KID, Jimmy Sirrel played football on the streets of Glasgow. Gas lamps were the floodlights.

The ball was made of screwed-up newspaper, shaped into an imperfect sphere using tape.

Years later, as a manager, Sirrel guided Notts County to the bright lights of the biggest stage in English Football.

He began his professional playing career with Celtic in 1945, after leaving the Navy, and a year after marrying his wife, Cathy.

On a stage that stood majestically against the modest Glasgow tenements, he spent four years with the Scottish giants, before enjoying spells at Bradford Park Avenue (1949-1951) and Brighton & Hove Albion (1951-1954).

In 1954, he signed for Aldershot and it was there, as the end of his playing days neared, that he took his first steps into coaching, steps that would take him to Meadow Lane 15 years later.

In 1960, he moved to Brentford. And after seven years as first-team coach at Griffin Park, he became the Bees' manager in September, 1967.

He spent two seasons in charge of the London club, guiding them to respectable 14th and 11th placed finishes in the Fourth Division, before the fateful day he met Magpies' chairman Jack Dunnett and was persuaded to take charge at Meadow Lane.

Sirrel arrived in Nottingham on November 19, 1969; a date etched indelibly in the club's history as perhaps its most significant.

As he walked into the club he declared: "Ask any kid what he knows about Notts County and he'll tell you they're the oldest football team in the world. By the time I've finished, he'll know a lot more."

It was a statement laced with incredibly clear intent. And how right he proved to be.

Nobody could have predicted the extraordinary feats the club would achieve under his guidance. Nobody.

Sirrel inherited a team including the luminary likes of Don Masson, David Needham, Bob Worthington and Les Bradd.

And he was an instant success, guiding the club out of the doldrums to the Division Four championship crown in his first full season in charge.

They stormed to the title, finishing the 1970/71 season nine points clear of their nearest rivals, Bournemouth, having completed the season without a single league defeat at Meadow Lane.

Tony Hateley, on his return to Meadow Lane from Birmingham City, struck 22 league goals in 29 games. And they conceded just 36 goals in 46 league games.

Sirrel's revolution was under way.

Notts narrowly missed a second successive promotion the following season, with Bradd scoring 21 league goals to fire the club to a fourth-place finish – just three points behind second-placed Brighton.

But the club was on the rise again in the 1972/73 campaign.

After a poor start, which saw them languishing in 16th place at the end of 1972, Notts went on an astounding run for the remainder of the season, losing only twice.

Sirrel's place in the club's history and their promotion into Division Two was secured in a 4-1 win against Tranmere on the final day of the season at Meadow Lane.

In under four years he had taken the Magpies from Division Four to Division Two.

Two mid-table finishes followed in the next two seasons before Sirrel left Notts to take over at Sheffield United on October 21, 1975.

Some feared it was the end of his love affair with the club. But they were wrong.

Sirrel returned to Meadow Lane on October 6, 1977, to save the club from relegation to Division Three.

He went on to build a second successful Notts team.

The 1980/81 season was his finest in charge at Meadow Lane when the Magpies finished second in Division Two, clinching a proud promotion to the top-flight of English Football. A 2-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge confirmed the Magpies would be playing Division One football for the first time since 1926.

Sirrel then steered the club to successive 15th-placed finishes in the 1981/82 and 1982/83 campaigns; he was general manager to Howard Wilkinson in the club's second season in the top flight.

In doing so, the Magpies shot down a universal expectation that they would swiftly fall back down the Football League ladder.

Sirrel continued as general manager of the club in the 1983/84 season, but Notts were eventually relegated from Division One under coach Larry Lloyd.

It was during that season Sirrel suffered a personal tragedy, when his wife, Cathy, died suddenly at their home in Burton Joyce, at the age of 60, in March, 1984.

Lloyd was sacked the following season, with the Magpies staring a second successive relegation in the face.

And Sirrel was thrown back into his tracksuit in an unsuccessful attempt to save the club from a dispiriting drop into Division Three.

After a swift free-fall, he managed to instigate a period of stability at Meadow Lane, before announcing his retirement at the end of the 1986/87 campaign.

It came after 18 years, and some incredible highs, at the club.

His achievements were recognised five years later when Meadow Lane was redeveloped and the County Road Stand was named the Jimmy Sirrel Stand.

In 2008, a portrait of him – commissioned by the Supporters' Trust – was hung in the main reception at Meadow Lane.

Both will ensure his significance to the club endures.

Even in retirement, Jimmy Sirrel became a supporter – and still had the power to inspire.

As the Magpies were facing the possibility of relegation into non-league oblivion, Sirrel took to the pitch ahead of the game on the final day of the 2005/06 season to rally the supporters and gave a rousing speech that lifted the roof off the Meadow Lane stadium.

Sirrel always spoke of his hope that the club would one day rise again.

Maybe they will. Maybe they won't. But one thing is certain.

With his name in big letters on a stand and his portrait hanging in the gateway to the club, Jimmy Sirrel will always be part of the fabric of the club.

And, like all legends, he will live in the hearts of all at Meadow Lane forever.