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The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread


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10 minutes ago, ryanayr1987 said:

Nah just with the number of cases in Scotland, the raith outbreak and everything I believe it will be taken out the hands of the SFA. 

Can’t see government taking any actions this week , cases no worse than last week , with today being lowest figure since 28th December, due to all teams in Scotland now taking tests I can only see action being taken if a number of clubs have an outbreak 

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1 hour ago, ayrunitedfw said:

Yeah. All teams have indicated they wish to continue as far as I know. Scot Gardiner at Inverness was on Sportsound yesterday clarifying that this was also his clubs stance and quotes from John Robertson in one of the papers had been taking out of context. 

Now that testing is in place I see no reason why the season can’t be played to a completion. Obviously if case numbers rise considerably then this would need to be looked at. 

I agree with your point. However, I'd never cite Scot Gardiner as he makes Walter Mitty look honest.

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4 hours ago, BukyOHare said:

I'm not saying what you're saying is wrong but what about the pitches we saw through the 70s, 80s and even into the 90s? 

They weren't the perfect surfaces we hope to see nowadays. When you think of the top players from these eras and even those who excelled at our level, they were skilful technical players who could control the ball on any surface, go past a player on any surface, cross and score on any surface and tackle and pass on any surface. 

The "perfect" surfaces that players are used to now through their training as youth players and now play on as first team players definitely develop different skills in the game and how it's played. Possibly to the detriment of the game when winter comes? 

There's a reliance on a perfect surface and that if a surface is bobbly, worn or uneven then its negatively affecting performances. 

Have a watch of some of our games through the eras and you'll still see fine attacking play. 

Even watching my kids' games when they were on, if it isn't on 4g pitches, which is what they train on, then they generally struggle, it's no different in the senior game really. 

Yes, I see what you're saying but no teams played the Barca passing style, that's only appeared in the past few years and works great when the pitches are fast and smooth but no team could play decent football on a championship level pitch in the current conditions.

What we could do however, is have guys like McCowan and Smith playing as wingers, running at players and then crossing the ball into the penalty area but for some reason we just don't seem to want to play that way and I just don't know why ??

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16 minutes ago, WATTOO said:

Yes, I see what you're saying but no teams played the Barca passing style, that's only appeared in the past few years and works great when the pitches are fast and smooth but no team could play decent football on a championship level pitch in the current conditions.

What we could do however, is have guys like McCowan and Smith playing as wingers, running at players and then crossing the ball into the penalty area but for some reason we just don't seem to want to play that way and I just don't know why ??

Not everybody has to play like Barca though do they? You find your own way to win football matches. That's where the football knowledge and savviness of the individual comes into play.

 

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Under Motherwell's previous manager i'd noticed Crawford had appeared to become a regular bench warmer which made me think we'd maybe be able to utilise the 3 club rule for this season and get him on loan for the second half of the season, cause he's head and shoulders above the quality of our current midfield. After it became apparent he's clearly part of Alexander's plans and if he continues to perform like he did today i can see Motherwell trying to sign him in the summer when his contract is up i'm sure.

Think Jordan White on loan is probably looking more likely, a carthorse like him isn't going to fit in with the tippy tappy out from the back play which Motherwell did today, was an unused sub today i'll add.

Edited by rb123!
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2 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

I've not seen any papers, you got a link? Which 7?

Read 3 papers today and following teams managers said they wanted to continue ( I know it’s up to boardroom so some might change  ) Hearts, Dundee, Morton, Dunfermline, Alloa , ICT and Ayr 

Edited by Robbo63
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19 minutes ago, Robbo63 said:

Read 3 papers today and following teams managers said they wanted to continue ( I know it’s up to boardroom so some might change  ) Hearts, Dundee, Morton, Dunfermline, Alloa , ICT and Ayr 

Ah, ok, not quite the same. I'd be astonished if ANY team's manager didn't want to play. It's their jobs. They don't want to sit at home (not sure what John McGlynn's health position is, he's been at home much of the season anyway has he not?). I guarantee Allan Johnston wants to play too. I don't think full time players as far as I can see have too many concerns about playing either. They want to play. I accept part time players whose day job might be affected may have a different attitude but I doubt it. Not at this level of serious football anyway. I fully understand why Dalbeattie Star type players who play for buttons at grounds where protocols are harder to enforce would not want to. The clubs could easily have a different attitude though.

That said I'd be surprised if clubs generally want to stop. Hearts, Dunfermline and Dundee must be definites for wanting to play on surely. If there's a chance of null and void and an impact on prize money then they won't want to risk that. If there's a chance of it being declared as a result where it is then Arbroath sure as Hell won't want to stop and probably not Alloa either. Scot Gardner has already publicly said Inverness will vote to carry on.

 

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19 hours ago, BukyOHare said:

I'm not saying what you're saying is wrong but what about the pitches we saw through the 70s, 80s and even into the 90s? 

They weren't the perfect surfaces we hope to see nowadays. When you think of the top players from these eras and even those who excelled at our level, they were skilful technical players who could control the ball on any surface, go past a player on any surface, cross and score on any surface and tackle and pass on any surface. 

The "perfect" surfaces that players are used to now through their training as youth players and now play on as first team players definitely develop different skills in the game and how it's played. Possibly to the detriment of the game when winter comes? 

There's a reliance on a perfect surface and that if a surface is bobbly, worn or uneven then its negatively affecting performances. 

Have a watch of some of our games through the eras and you'll still see fine attacking play. 

Even watching my kids' games when they were on, if it isn't on 4g pitches, which is what they train on, then they generally struggle, it's no different in the senior game really. 

Dig out the highlights of our cup game against Dunfermline back in the 80s.  I genuinely think many fans will be struck by the quality of the players first touch, on a pretty average pitch.  Those were the conditions players played on in the past and they just had to adapt.  The idea that some of the great teams of the past like Ajax or Liverpool either didn’t play a passing game or did because they played on bowling green pitches is laughable.  Plastic pitches are really just a cheap option in the same way as ash parks were back in the 60s.  All I know is that we used to have one of the best pitches in Scotland, and now it’s a disgrace.  We shouldn’t be wasting time on plastic pitches, we should be putting our efforts into fixing the surface we have.

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1 minute ago, HMIP said:

Dig out the highlights of our cup game against Dunfermline back in the 80s.  I genuinely think many fans will be struck by the quality of the players first touch, on a pretty average pitch.  Those were the conditions players played on in the past and they just had to adapt.  The idea that some of the great teams of the past like Ajax or Liverpool either didn’t play a passing game or did because they played on bowling green pitches is laughable.  Plastic pitches are really just a cheap option in the same way as ash parks were back in the 60s.  All I know is that we used to have one of the best pitches in Scotland, and now it’s a disgrace.  We shouldn’t be wasting time on plastic pitches, we should be putting our efforts into fixing the surface we have.

The game nowadays is more about fitness and pace than back then. Much less room for tricky wingers  and time on the ball as you get shut down quicker 

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1 hour ago, AyrExile said:

The game nowadays is more about fitness and pace than back then. Much less room for tricky wingers  and time on the ball as you get shut down quicker 

Not just the wingers though.  Every player on the park seems to be able to control the ball.  

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It's a totally different game nowadays, it's all about pace and one touch pass and move which is very difficult to do on a slow muddy pitch, irrespective of how good your touch is.

The rules have also changed, with today's football is like a non contact training session from yesteryear, defenders now are all about obstructing or blocking a space with tackling more or less outlawed.

If I'm being honest I find today's game pretty slow and boring for most of the season, however for the 6 - 8 weeks of good weather and good pitches I actually quite enjoy the fast pass and move game but in winter it just doesn't work and ends up a sideways passing non contact bore fest with no tackling, few crosses and few shots at goal, which all in all is just mince as a viewing spectacle.

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56 minutes ago, WATTOO said:

It's a totally different game nowadays, it's all about pace and one touch pass and move which is very difficult to do on a slow muddy pitch, irrespective of how good your touch is.

The rules have also changed, with today's football is like a non contact training session from yesteryear, defenders now are all about obstructing or blocking a space with tackling more or less outlawed.

If I'm being honest I find today's game pretty slow and boring for most of the season, however for the 6 - 8 weeks of good weather and good pitches I actually quite enjoy the fast pass and move game but in winter it just doesn't work and ends up a sideways passing non contact bore fest with no tackling, few crosses and few shots at goal, which all in all is just mince as a viewing spectacle.

The great Liverpool teams of the 70s and 80s were defined by one touch pass and move.  And our own fans  who are old enough remember the style of football we played under Ally in the 80s, not to mention the stuff we produced with Walker, Hurst and Teale.   It really is a terrible conceit to imagine that modern football has invented this style of play..  

We really are arguing ourselves into a black hole on this one.  Plastic pitches were and are a cost cutting exercise.  That is the one and only reason they were introduced.  Now we seem to be drinking the Kool Aid and buying the nonsense that  somehow we need them to play decent football.  Bottom line?  If they were really better than grass, the top teams would adopt them in a heartbeat.  But the players clearly don’t like them and questions still remain as to why players with knee problems like Jamie Adams are actively advised not to play on them when there is no issue with them playing on grass.

Edited by HMIP
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Fond memories of  that game played on the mudheap at Dunfermline in 1988. Wee Templeton ran them ragged, surprised he came off the park with both legs still attached. Dunfermline were pretty brutal. That is, when they could get close enough to actually foul him. Jim Cowell on the left wing was another victim of Pars thuggery. Red card was only a matter of time.

That equaliser was one of those goals that leads to total euphoria. It was hardly a thing of beauty, more a comedy of errors by the Dunfermline defence. It was the context that mattered. 3rd tier against 1st tier, away from home, fearing the worst when they scored in 63 min.

Given they went down to 10 just before our goal, I thought we might go on and win it. But, to their credit, Dunfermline played better with 10 than 11 and had the better chances to win. One of our more memorable games. We then lost the replay 0-2 in front of around 11,700. 

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2 hours ago, HMIP said:

The great Liverpool teams of the 70s and 80s were defined by one touch pass and move.  And our own fans  who are old enough remember the style of football we played under Ally in the 80s, not to mention the stuff we produced with Walker, Hurst and Teale.   It really is a terrible conceit to imagine that modern football has invented this style of play..  

We really are arguing ourselves into a black hole on this one.  Plastic pitches were and are a cost cutting exercise.  That is the one and only reason they were introduced.  Now we seem to be drinking the Kool Aid and buying the nonsense that  somehow we need them to play decent football.  Bottom line?  If they were really better than grass, the top teams would adopt them in a heartbeat.  But the players clearly don’t like them and questions still remain as to why players with knee problems like Jamie Adams are actively advised not to play on them when there is no issue with them playing on grass.

I watched us in the 80's and 90's just the same, but the football was still a different style to what we played last season when at our best, with Forrest, McCowan, Moffat, Kelly, Doc etc and even Moore and Shankland the previous season all passing and moving and pinging the ball around. I'm not saying it's better than any other era, just different.

Templeton, Teale and Horace are the most individually talented players that I've seen in an Ayr jersey and the likes of Andy Walker one of the classiest centre forwards, all of them more talented than most of the footballers currently playing at any level in Scotland just now, however the game was different., it was probably slower however players had to take a tackle and there was far more emphasis on individual skill as opposed to now where it's all about fitting in a team setup and also a huge emphasis on individual fitness as well.

I don't think any of our current players are capable of dancing past defender after defender in the way wee Henry made it look so simple, but by the same token, I'm not sure you could stoat out the pub with a pint in hand and fag in mouth nowadays and perform to the required level ??

The bottom line is that it's very hard to compare era's as the game keeps evolving (some would say regressing), it's also worth remembering that we had some great times in each era but we also had some dreadful times with terrible games involving all the players previously mentioned, I suppose all we can do is compare our players to their peers at a snaphot in time as opposed to comparing with former players who played in a different time and it must be said a different game.

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