HMIP

Struggling to find the energy to be perfectly honest. If that ridiculous summary is how you saw the game, so be it. I’m not convinced Stewart is the right choice, but I haven’t seen anything in his 3 games in charge to suggest he isn’t a viable option.

I’ve genuinely got no idea how we took nothing from that game today.

Not sure the timing of Cameron’s tweet was particularly helpful. Doesn’t sound like Stewart is getting it, but I hope he stays on as a coach. As for today’s game, we’ll rarely play as well away from home and come away with nothing.

That’s a brutal list of candidates. Still say we should get Peter Murphy in with Stewart staying on as an experienced coach/assistant.

Get a grip lads, Jack Ross isn’t coming to Ayr. He’ll have a short break in the sun, and by the time he gets back there could well be vacancies at Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen. That’s assuming he’s not on gardening leave for a year or two.

Not sure he said anything that out of line, unless something was deleted that I haven’t seen. If people are going to post drivel aimed at the board, don’t get precious if someone from the board points it out to you. I remember the q and a back in the summer when some loony accused Cameron of stealing money from the club.

He wants to come back to Ayr and play left midfield for 3 seasons. Puzzling career choice, but there you go.

Robbie Crawford currently being rubbish for Livingston against Celtic. Still baffled by the criticism that guy got from a certain element of our support.

Think it’s a knee jerk reaction to be honest after the shock of McCall walking away so quickly. The “continuity” argument comes up a lot as well but I personally think it’s over-egged. Our management team for the past 4 or 5 years has walked away so change is going to be inevitable whatever happens. Appointing Stewart on the basis that everything will just stay the same is flawed thinking. In any case, there are plenty of examples of outstanding coaches that perhaps weren’t the right choice as manager. Dale Roberts and Iain Munro are 2 that I can think of in the recent history of our club alone. But as I say, I’m not opposed to him getting the job as such, but since no one knows who has applied, it’s difficult to form a judgement on who might be better. Perhaps Owen Coyle wouldn’t be the worst idea as it would allow Stewart to stay on given their past relationship (which I can only assume is still good). Criticising Coyle’s recent record rings hollow given that Stewart was his right hand man through those times. It’s also worth remembering that Ian McCall was extremely damaged goods when we took a punt on him 5 years ago, so perhaps we should all be more open minded on some of the options available - not Lee McCulloch, John Hughes or Neil McCann though!

Really difficult one for us on the new manager. 2 weeks ago, most of us barely even knew what Stewart’s role at the club was beyond the vague title of “coach” and now he seems to be the automatic choice for manager despite not holding that role at any club for 15 years. I absolutely would want him to stay, but I can’t help thinking we need an experienced front man who will let Stewart do what he is evidently very good at. Guess it depends on who applies. Some of the names being linked with us just seem like the usual roll call of out of work failures being touted by their pals in the media.

Cameron stated on one of his q and a Facebook things that we didn’t receive any bids in January for Shankland. Given that the board backed him with full time football just over 2 years ago, I’m surprised at his criticism of the board. Or maybe they lost a wee bit of confidence in his judgement after they gave him the money to sign his mate Harkins.

Would be peak irony if Shankland leaves in January and it costs Dundee Utd the league. Admittedly they’d get about a million quid for him which would come in handy, but still.

Moffat is absolute top class, but he looked knackered after an hour. We’re going to need Doolan and Moore in due course.

You’ve missed the point. He’s been poor and predictably so given he couldn’t get a game last season for a rotten Partick side. It was some of the abuse he was getting that I didn’t like e.g. a few boos when he came on as a sub. He was warming up behind the goals in the first half and I heard a few shouts along the lines of f*** off to Partick. Not necessary.

McCall would have claimed we should have been 5 or 6 up at half time.... Time to move on from him I’d say. Only disappointment yesterday apart from Kerr getting injured was a few of the comments being directed at Doolan. The guy has been poor but it’s not his fault the way things planned out with McCall. Seemed to be coming from the drunk young team, but I still think it’s out of order. The song about McCall being an alky was an embarrassment as well. Would rather see us focus on the team and the current management team.

Bit of displaced hostility being directed at Doolan I’d say! General view is that he is a model pro, so I’m sure he is trying his best for us. Looks like his legs have gone a bit though - might be one of the few things Caldwell got right at Partick!

The fact that we’re a full time championship team is probably helping. Our record with loan signings is a bit more patchy than recent history suggests. Doohan and Kelly have been excellent, but there has also been duds like McKenna, McCrorie, Miller and that dunderhead keeper from Wolves. I don’t disagree though that a manager with plenty of contacts is important. With Lennon in charge at Celtic, Partick will likely have first choice of their loan players.

Archibald has also confirmed that it was McCall that contacted him about the assistant manager role. Since his role in the proposed new set up was being openly touted on Saturday, it indicates to me that all the talk on Sunday of McCall’s decision being on a knife edge was total tosh (sorry Voice of Reason!). In the end, I don’t really care. The timing is certainly awful, but if he didn’t want to be Ayr manager anymore, it’s for the best he goes. Pointing the finger at Cameron also seems a bit of a nonsense. Whatever he may have been saying publicly about his undying loyalty to Ayr and his debt to Cameron personally, it seems that McCall had privately insisted on a contract that allowed him to walk away at any time with buttons for us in compensation. Take from that what you will.