rgreig

Certainly true, and this is where we need fans of Hamilton (assuming it is Canning) to give their view of whether he recruited badly, or recruited as well as could be expected given the budget, and whether he got the best out of them. For example, we could say that Kerr seemed to do OK recruiting what we all thought were decent Championship players but then was unable to figure out his best starting 11 or keep them motivated when things didn't go their way. We need the opposite in whoever we appoint.

Looking at the stats for both Canning and Rice, it is interesting how poor they are yet they did keep Hamilton in the top flight for several seasons. Canning had a win % just under 24% and Rice just over 24%. By way of comparison, Duffy had just over 29% with us, and Jim McIntyre had just over 36% while at Ross County. (McIntyre's Dundee stat is just under 13% which is hard to imagine). To put that into context I suppose you need to know the budget they were working with in comparison with the rest of the teams in the division. Does anyone have any idea of Hamilton's budget compared with other bottom 6 Premiership clubs?

I don't live too far from Firhill and I was a little surprised the game is off. It was dry yesterday, and although it was raining all morning it was off from around 2.30pm. I can only assume the grounds staff thought it would be OK by this evening and only realised after some time that they would not be able to clear the water.

I think he comes across OK actually, you can at least tell he does some preparation for the games he is commentating on. Of course, have zero clue if he would be a good coach based on that! And if we are comparing him with other pundits, then compared with Kris Boyd he is AJP Taylor and Richard Feynman combined.

I would be delighted with a draw to be fair....

I'd like to see how McAllister develops under a better coach/manager before writing him off completely.

The links expire, but you can get a fresh link from the HMRC page: THE AYR UNITED FOOTBALL AND ATHLETIC CLUB, LIMITED filing history - Find and update company information - GOV.UK (company-information.service.gov.uk)

I do have sympathy with this perspective. While I am sure Ayr and Kilmarnock fans want to be able to attend league derbies given how long we had to wait for them, it isn't clear on what basis the rescheduling is being requested? As you say, every club will be experiencing financial impact due to the lockdown it just happens to be the case that Kilmarnock are being impacted more than any other club in the division (I assume) due to the timing of this match. Is there anything in the rules about criteria for being able to request a match to be rescheduled? I could also imagine that the other clubs in the bottom 5 would not be delighted at it being rescheduled either since it gives Ayr more time to get a new manager and possibly new players on board - most of them would expect Ayr to get absolutely nothing from that game if it were to go ahead on 2 Jan.

Yes, me too. I'm sorry for making rash assumptions and please do continue to post on the forum.

Suspects usual apply status desperate. Bots Russian strewn across Finnie Street John.

This thread, in early December I think. Could be entirely baseless of course so don't treat it as anything other than wild rumour and speculation. I have no idea how achievable 4 or 5 would be for Mathie. But it is true that we failed to bring in even the single midfielder we needed prior to the start of the season so it would be some achievement even getting close.

I think Maxwell is clearly a player with a lot of talent and in the right team, with the right coach, would be a major asset. I don't think Duffy got anything like the best out of him but even so I thought the team was much better with him playing than not. I would hope he will wait to see who our new head coach is going to be before making any decision on whether to move but I could understand why a permanent deal at Partick would be attractive for him. I doubt that Maxwell was on the list of players needing to be moved on so if the figure of four was to be believed previously then that is now five which is a big ask in a January window.

I am sure our good friend @Sortmeout will be here in a second to defend this behaviour.

Does anyone know anything about Bartley's coaching skills? How did Livingston reserves do under him?

That implies we are going to have a new manager in place relatively quickly though?

It did come across that way. Particularly where he said that he'd tried lots of different combinations this season but none of them had worked. As if he were some independent bystander, commentating on events that he could not influence or control. I could accept a lack of creativity given our squad but there is absolutely no way that so-called professionals should be unable to defend corners.

I would like a journalist to respond to a comment like that by asking "what was running through your mind when you picked that starting eleven Jim? Every time you've tried that formation it has failed miserably, so what made you believe that suddenly Cameron Salkeld became a football player despite all the empirical evidence to the contrary?" Even the QoS commentator (whom I thought was pretty good) said "Ayr have been laughably bad this afternoon" and "It isn't clear why Jim Duffy would play Salkeld rather than Michael Moffat". If someone who has rarely seen us can spot that immediately it makes you realise that Duffy is utterly clueless. We don't have a good squad but Duffy manages to get the worst out of it.

Yes

Maybe he's trying to become the first Ayr manager to be sacked *before* the match begins.

Exactly, it's a joke that he doesn't start Bradley over Salkeld. I have no idea what Salkeld does in training but it must be truly amazing. I have also lost patience with someone who still doesn't know what his best starting 11 is.

I think this is the key point. We have managed to attract someone who is at a prime stage in his career (he is just under 40) and has worked in a senior role at a much bigger club that ours - whatever was described to him must have shown that there is not just pie-in-the-sky dreaming but something backed by funding and a strategy. Nobody at that age or stage in his career is taking a job because it is local or because he wants less stress. There is also the cost of bringing him in - his salary I am sure is not insignificant for a club like Ayr, which also points to solid funding for other parts of the clubs (both infrastructure and squad).

If you didn't get up this season, but finished (say) third, what is the difference in funds available for the playing squad next season? I did a quick search and it seemed that the parachute payment was a decent sum and I presume you've already budgeted to spend it all this season?

We just don't do that enough - for long spells in the first half we looked like we were playing a 7-0-3 formation. I don't understand why Duffy is so unwilling to play Bradley from the start either. Overall I thought the defence did look better (apart from the goal obviously) and we did create a lot more real chances than in previous weeks. But given how poor Hamilton were I don't think anyone at the club should be happy this morning.

Yes, I remember just before he was fired we played some bizarre line-up, with Ndaba in midfield. At that point I thought "he's lost the plot" and I didn't think it was unreasonable that he was fired, particularly when you consider that the squad on paper was decent. The appointment to replace him was a very poor decision that most people on here criticised based on Hopkin's record and was compounded by not firing him at the end of the season. The thing that none of us knows is what conversations Smith is having with Duffy - if we get to the end of the January window and our squad has not been improved then I think any and all criticism of Smith would be fair. Until then I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt - as someone once said, reserving judgement is a matter of infinite hope.

Surely it must depend on how Duffy is approaching the transfer window, rather than Friday's result? Presumably Smith has had many discussions with Duffy about his strategy for improving the squad in January (targets, approach, budget etc) and whether he survives will depend on whether he has demonstrated he has a coherent plan and then whether he is able to execute it.