D'Jaffo

Aye we really lack a physical presence in midfield. You look at all the teams that have won this league in the past and they’ve always got a big player in midfield that does a lot of the dirty work.

Of course it isn’t. He was good last night but he was also a big part of your collapse against us at the start of the season and was rotten in the 5-0 game. Alex Kirk hasn’t put a foot wrong this season and I’d rather have Musonda than Kilday. It helps him that he’s got Charlie Fox next to him. Much the same that it helps McGinty that he has Kirk.

I wouldn’t say we’ve been pumped in any of the games. They’ve all been tight and it’s been key moments that have let us down. We could easily have got back into that game last night at 1-0.

They probably just expect them to “do something”. That’s what fans expect all players to do when it’s not doing their way. It doesn’t seem like a terribly hard thing to do either.

There’s a vast difference saying that someone is junior standard and not Championship standard. It’s blatantly obvious to anyone who is aware of the standard of football we are currently playing at that Ashford, Houston and McKenzie are all capable of playing in this league for different reasons. Are they all good enough to start for a team at the top? No. But they’d all get in the squads of other teams in this league. Hewitt is a young player who had a year out due to injury, played a couple of months in League 1 and in the last couple of games was coming in to a bit of form. Prior to his injury he also looked a standout in a relatively non existent Ayr midfield and would probably have been a useful player for us last season. I think Bullen needs to work out what kind of player he is. If he had a bit more composure he could easily end up doing Dempseys job of making runs into the box for goals but it’s something for him to work on. Tbh I think he’s fine overall.

McInroy left Airdrie at the start of January. Think he played a game for Airdrie and then left that week. It was probably around the same time that McAlear last played for Tranmere but the difference is that McInroy was at least starting and lasting the majority of games. McAlear has been reduced to sub appearances for a couple of months now. Chuck him in a reserve game and let him start against Elgin. He was poor tonight but he looked like someone who hadn’t kicked a ball properly for a while.

Kirk must’ve wasted about half a dozen long balls to either goal kicks or just straight into the goalies arms. But aye carry on.

Can Ayr fans go five minutes without trying to say that a player* is junior standard. No other fan base comes away with shite like this. *Hewitt, McKenzie, Ashford and Houston the usual candidates.

Bad performance and we were a yard off it all night. McAlear will get hammered after what was a poor debut but I’m not that worried about him. He hasn’t played for about a month and has been restricted to sub appearances since October. IIRC it took McInroy a couple of games to get up to speed after spending so long not playing at Celtic after his loan at Airdrie ended. It’s natural to be lacking in sharpness. Bullen probably wants to get him in to build it up quicker but it was arguably going to be the hardest game for him to do that tonight. Don’t really think I could give anyone pass marks after that. Mullen looked the most likely to do something and Kirk was fine but besides that we picked a helluva game to decide to drop the ball in.

I don’t really buy that you get an advantage shooting in front of your own supporters. Professional footballers should be able to kick a ball on target from the penalty spot. If the goalie saves it then fair enough but at least get it on target.

I’m not convinced Murdoch would step up all that well. I’d keep him around but I’m not sure he’s at that level. You’d be looking at 5-6 upgrades on the squad anyway with the full backs attacking midfielders being the priority.

Because I just said that they didn’t contribute anything on the pitch. If we’re rating them as signings then they have to be judged purely on their footballing contribution. Being a good laugh in the dressing room doesn’t count for much. McGinty is a senior figure in the squad and will have contributed a lot more off the pitch than Gondoh did. Gondoh probably contributed more to the nightclubs than he did Ayr United.

Rowe, Gondoh and Kenyon would get 0/10 for me. None of them really contributed on the pitch at all. Edit: In fairness to Kenyon he was brought in as a squad filler for a couple of months and apparently was well respected in the dressing room. Was completely passed by at this level though.

His movement is very good and he has a decent touch but he genuinely might be one of the worst finishers we’ve ever had.

It’s very common for managers to take recommendations from people they know. Especially when it’ll be relatively cheap risk. However I agree that the model we’ve adopted through Glendinning is the best way forward.