The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[Pick that one out Marshall]

24 minutes ago, AYRSHIRE_ANGUS said:

1 hour ago, Hursty said:

Looking at fixtures and table after last night I'd say Alloa is becoming a must win to avoid getting dragged into the battle to avoid 9th and the massive extra pressure that brings.  Which is a concern given their form - hopefully our recent good run against them can continue  

Yes I'm looking for two wins ASAP to avoid any doubt. If the second of those wins comes at home to Partick in front of the cameras then that will be one fun Friday.

Indeed

[pandarilla]

Looking at fixtures and table after last night I'd say Alloa is becoming a must win to avoid getting dragged into the battle to avoid 9th and the massive extra pressure that brings.  Which is a concern given their form - hopefully our recent good run against them can continue  

There's no 'must win' for us at the moment. That's just pressure and expectation that helps no-one .

We absolutely need wins but we've shown we can get them against anyone. Yes our form against Dundee has been rubbish but we shouldn't fear them. They're bang average at times.

Even the Dundee United game is winnable as they've been poor recently and we often play well against them.

We need to win games, and the sooner the better, but if you gave me a poor run for the next couple of weeks and then a blistering winning run that lasts until the playoffs I'd take that in a heartbeat.

Keep the faith.

[eez-eh]

There’s definitely an awful lot of people getting carried away. The performance last night was dreadful but it’s the first of its kind this year. We got 7/9 points wise in January plus a cup win against a Premiership side. On Saturday the general consensus was we played well into a strong head wind in the first half and would have cruised the second half had the game not been abandoned.

We would still go third with a draw in our game in hand. This is just football at its fickle best.

[DeStevie]

33 minutes ago, eez-eh said:

There’s definitely an awful lot of people getting carried away. The performance last night was dreadful but it’s the first of its kind this year. We got 7/9 points wise in January plus a cup win against a Premiership side. On Saturday the general consensus was we played well into a strong head wind in the first half and would have cruised the second half had the game not been abandoned.

We would still go third with a draw in our game in hand. This is just football at its fickle best.

Played well up until we conceded then just fell apart. We had 7 players 21 or under playing last night people forget that. Sooner  we get more experience players back the better. 

[HMIP]

Really disappointed to hear Kerr admit that it was a deliberate decision to go with long balls in the 2nd half.  It was totally ineffective from start to finish.  Drinan barely won a header all night and even when he did, our set up meant there was no one within 10 yards of him.  Kerr seems very guilty of over analysing things rather than just playing to the strengths of the players he has at his disposal.

[No_Problemo]

Really disappointed to hear Kerr admit that it was a deliberate decision to go with long balls in the 2nd half.  It was totally ineffective from start to finish.  Drinan barely won a header all night and even when he did, our set up meant there was no one within 10 yards of him.  Kerr seems very guilty of over analysing things rather than just playing to the strengths of the players he has at his disposal.

Surprised by this - I thought we looked really comfortable in the first half and played the ball about well - we just never created enough. We were horrific in the second half and I have no idea why we would have changed things about like that.

[Guest]

18 hours ago, UpInTheAyr said:

Conditions tonight were pretty good for playing our usual way, even the pitch looked in good shape. That game was absolutely there for the taking if we had just a bit more quality.  Not sure Kerr would go back to that front three now Drinan is here. Can't see Kerr dropping him.

Yes, I'd completely agree with this.

The long high balls up the park just do nothing for us, especially as the majority of our side are midgets and easily pushed off the ball. Morton were there for the taking last night but as the match wore on they just seemed to fancy it more and were winning almost every second ball. As I say, we basically fell into the trap and played to their strengths rather than our own. I suppose we were also missing Doc pretty badly as Gillespie just looks completely off the pace to me.

Some may think I'm mad, but I'm not so sure that Drinan has weakened us (through no fault of his own) due to us having a tendency to change our style and play long balls to him, Yes, there's a time and place for this style, ie, when we play the likes of Inverness and the tougher away matches, however at home and against weaker opposition we should be playing to our own strengths and trying to out football sides with the short quick passes which the likes of McCowan, Moffat, Forrest, Kerr and I'd reckon Malley, are all so good at.

Still, it's only a minor setback at the moment and won't become a fully blown crisis unless we lose our next couple of matches............

[diegomarahenry]

The performance last night was brutal, to many players looked like they didn't want to be there, I'd only give the two full backs any credit (second goal withstanding) 

Doohan was ropey, Bell and Roscoe weren't much better. Gillespie was mediocre at best, did a lot of organising without doing anything himself, Kelly went missing for half an hour, Malley played well for the first 20min and disappeared. 

The front three were absent all game. 

This was a rotten Morton team, dreadful, yet they won and stopped us playing for the majority of the game. I don't put this down to Kerr, I put this down to the players needing a massive boot up the arse after that. Maybe it is to many young players and inconsistency playing a part but that was dreadful. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, diegomarahenry said:

The performance last night was brutal, to many players looked like they didn't want to be there, I'd only give the two full backs any credit (second goal withstanding) 

Doohan was ropey, Bell and Roscoe weren't much better. Gillespie was mediocre at best, did a lot of organising without doing anything himself, Kelly went missing for half an hour, Malley played well for the first 20min and disappeared. 

The front three were absent all game. 

This was a rotten Morton team, dreadful, yet they won and stopped us playing for the majority of the game. I don't put this down to Kerr, I put this down to the players needing a massive boot up the arse after that. Maybe it is to many young players and inconsistency playing a part but that was dreadful. 

It's hard to evaluate the performances of our midfield and attack as they were bypassed most of the night as the game descended into a horrific hoofball fest..............

[BukyOHare]

16 hours ago, WATTOO said:

It's hard to evaluate the performances of our midfield and attack as they were bypassed most of the night as the game descended into a horrific hoofball fest..............

This. 

We've scored more than 1 goal in a league game only once since the Partick game at the beginning of November. I'm amazed we're still in the playoff places with stats like that. 

We need to get back to playing with a tempo, pace and control of games that had teams and supporters genuinely impressed and worried in equal measure when they played us. We've got the same players generally and bar McCall leaving nothing's greatly changed. 

Im not buying that a sudden shift to kicking as high and as long to Drinan is down to the poor standard of pitches and the winter conditions. 

We're not causing teams enough problems in the final third and this along with poor finishing from the few chances that are created is a huge cause of our downturn in form. 

 

 

 

Edited February 27, 2020 by BukyOHare

[UpInTheAyr]

42 minutes ago, BukyOHare said:

I'm amazed we're still in the playoff places with stats like that.

We are amazing at shithousing a playoff place.

[eez-eh]

A few weeks ago everyone was praising how much more solid and organised we looked. One bad game doesn’t mean the roof’s about to cave in.

[Thereisalight..]

A few unpopular opinions I’ve came up with during the last few weeks

-Moffat shouldn’t be starting games. Absolute dreadful recently especially when one on one with the keeper

-Gillespie looks piss poor. He should be playing in the juniors, not the Championship 

-Forrest needs dropped to the bench

-Doohan, will never make the grade with the Celtic 1st team. Bottom 6 Prem or Championship team is his level 

-Kelly, a shadow of the player he was during his first 2 months with us 

[AyrExile]

2 hours ago, BukyOHare said:

This. 

We've scored more than 1 goal in a league game only once since the Partick game at the beginning of November. I'm amazed we're still in the playoff places with stats like that. 

We need to get back to playing with a tempo, pace and control of games that had teams and supporters genuinely impressed and worried in equal measure when they played us. We've got the same players generally and bar McCall leaving nothing's greatly changed. 

Im not buying that a sudden shift to kicking as high and as long to Drinan is down to the poor standard of pitches and the winter conditions. 

We're not causing teams enough problems in the final third and this along with poor finishing from the few chances that are created is a huge cause of our downturn in form. 

 

 

 

A few things have changed though. Forrest was unplayable at the start of the season and either his form has dipped or he’s being marked out of games. McCowan and Moffat were also crucial to playing the quick pass and move game. McCowan isn’t starting very much and Moffat seems to be second choice when Moore is fit. Kerr also seems to prefer a slightly more cautious approach that helps against teams like Ict.  At the same time this dampens our free scoring play somewhat 

[D'Jaffo]

I don’t get the hate for Gillespie tbh. I just think he’s very, very slow however when he has the ball he’s pretty decent. In saying that I’d still have Kerr or Doc (when fit) starting over him.

 

No was moaning about our lack of goals when we were beating Dunfermline, ICT and Ross County so to start now is a bit fickle.

 

I’d also keep Forrest in the team tbh. His form has dipped but theres no one else really pushing to start in the team (Moffat has probably been worse and Tiffoney isn’t good enough).

 

[UpInTheAyr]

51 minutes ago, eez-eh said:

A few weeks ago everyone was praising how much more solid and organised we looked. One bad game doesn’t mean the roof’s about to cave in.

The performance has got everyone spooked more than the defeat.

[BukyOHare]

1 hour ago, D'Jaffo said:

I don’t get the hate for Gillespie tbh. I just think he’s very, very slow however when he has the ball he’s pretty decent. In saying that I’d still have Kerr or Doc (when fit) starting over him.

 

No was moaning about our lack of goals when we were beating Dunfermline, ICT and Ross County so to start now is a bit fickle.

 

I’d also keep Forrest in the team tbh. His form has dipped but theres no one else really pushing to start in the team (Moffat has probably been worse and Tiffoney isn’t good enough).

 

Agree with your view on Gillespie which I've explained elsewhere. 

Your point on the lack of goals is however a bit wide of the mark, the reason why no one complained is because we were underdogs in those games, certainly performed above expectation against 2 SPL teams and the team who will in all likelihood finish 2nd, definitely the best of the rest regardless. 

Its not fickle to expect us to have more of a cutting edge going forward and causing teams outwith Dundee Utd and ICT big problems. 

To become ever increasingly dependent on knocking it forward to the big man, plays into the hands of every team in this league. Central defenders in this league largely want a physical aerial battle

What they don't want is pace and trickery running at them. We're not getting in behind teams often enough and a lack / loss of form, confidence or interest, delete as applicable, means its easier to knock it long and hope for the best. 

Earlier in the season we were making things happen, now it looks like we're hoping for things to happen. 

Its definitely worrying and one look at the league should give anyone grave concerns that we're going to finish out of the playoffs. 

You can't hope to win games if you're relying on only scoring one goal and defending as poorly as we have been. 

[Guest]

4 hours ago, D'Jaffo said:

I don’t get the hate for Gillespie tbh. I just think he’s very, very slow however when he has the ball he’s pretty decent. In saying that I’d still have Kerr or Doc (when fit) starting over him.

 

No was moaning about our lack of goals when we were beating Dunfermline, ICT and Ross County so to start now is a bit fickle.

 

I’d also keep Forrest in the team tbh. His form has dipped but theres no one else really pushing to start in the team (Moffat has probably been worse and Tiffoney isn’t good enough).

 

We discussed this in depth, however the common consensus was that we would revert back to our passing style as it was a "horses for courses" situation with Kerr amending his tactics based on the opposition, sadly this hasn't happened and there's only so many games you can get away with sneaking 1-0 wins or scraping a 0-0, 1-1 draw.

The annoying thing is that many of the sides in this league simply couldn't cope with our quick passing game, so for me, it's time to return to it on Saturday..............

Edited February 27, 2020 by WATTOO

[D'Jaffo]

We discussed this in depth, however the common consensus was that we would revert back to our passing style as it was a "horses for courses" situation with Kerr amending his tactics based on the opposition, sadly this hasn't happened and there's only so many games you can get away with sneaking 1-0 wins or scraping a 0-0, 1-1 draw.
The annoying thing is that many of the sides in this league simply couldn't cope with our quick passing game, so for me, it's time to return to it on Saturday..............

Morton clearly couldn’t cope with for the first 20 minutes on Tuesday night. The players just reverted back to the direct football that worked against ICT for some reason. I can’t fathom why Kerr said it was the plan to go direct when we clearly didn’t to start with. Maybe he was just taking the heat off the players.

The only positives to take is we played well until going in front and Kerr is at least willing to change things to suit different opponents.

[rb123!]

Notice BBC Scotland is showing the Inverness Scottish cup game tonight with a kick off of 1945 which means their beloved nine will be delayed.

How come they're willing to change it for cup games but for league games we get shafted with a stupid 1905 kick off