The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[diegomarahenry]

31 minutes ago, HMIP said:

If this is remotely true then Adeloye can GTF immediately.  No way has he done enough to warrant a prima donna attitude.  Take away the selfies, the badge kissing and a handful of tap ins at the start of the season, he’s done little in an Ayr jersey to justify the amount of smoke that’s been blown up his arse.  It was always a concern to me that he has had so many clubs for a 25 year old (I make it 11 in five years if the online stats are correct), and maybe we are beginning to see why he never seems to last anywhere.

We don't have anyone other than him to lead the line, all the other players support a player like Adeloye but he's just not doing it. 

Brian Graham did nothing today other than score 2 goals. Its all he always does. It is why he is at a championship team because if he was at the arse end of the premier, where he has been before, his team would need more from him. 

Playing at a team at the top or middling in the Championship means he can get away with doing very little and scoring regularly. 

Adeloye can put himself about when he wants to, Today there was no urgency or coming deep to try and create anything, He was absent for about an hour today and hasn't contributed in weeks. If he was scoring semi-regularly, his work rate would be largely ignored.  

If we can get a replacement, I'd send Afolabi back to Celtic, I'd stop playing McKenzie out of position and concentrate on O'Conner, Maxwell, McKenzie Moffat and Salkeld trying to work out the best front 3. 

[HMIP]

6 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

We don't have anyone other than him to lead the line, all the other players support a player like Adeloye but he's just not doing it. 

Brian Graham did nothing today other than score 2 goals. Its all he always does. It is why he is at a championship team because if he was at the arse end of the premier, where he has been before, his team would need more from him. 

Playing at a team at the top or middling in the Championship means he can get away with doing very little and scoring regularly. 

Adeloye can put himself about when he wants to, Today there was no urgency or coming deep to try and create anything, He was absent for about an hour today and hasn't contributed in weeks. If he was scoring semi-regularly, his work rate would be largely ignored.  

If we can get a replacement, I'd send Afolabi back to Celtic, I'd stop playing McKenzie out of position and concentrate on O'Conner, Maxwell, McKenzie Moffat and Salkeld trying to work out the best front 3. 

Adeloye hasn’t kicked a ball in weeks, and there are real questions mounting as to his attitude.  We were in a flap after the Todorov debacle so I suspect we threw a good contract at him - I doubt he’ll be off anytime soon.  I don’t really understand why Moffat has been frozen out - maybe his legs have finally gone, but I’d still like to see him given a chance to try and form a partnership with someone (probably Afolabi).  We’ve nothing to lose at this point, and we’ll find out pretty quick if Moffat is genuinely done.

[mugen_power]

The usual suspects on Twitter tonight crying that the club and team are getting pelters for an utterly shite performance...

My favourite line is definitely the old addage that people at Asda don't get criticism for doing their jobs badly...of course they do, they just dont have their name in the public eye because of their job choice nor are their hangers-on bleating on about how hard it is to be them on social media

Nae sympathy 

[rb123!]

52 minutes ago, mugen_power said:

The usual suspects on Twitter tonight crying that the club and team are getting pelters for an utterly shite performance...

Who?

[mugen_power]

21 minutes ago, rb123! said:

Who?

Well Moffats wife for one, although she's been a mouthpiece since he played for Girvan anyway...dunno who she follows on social media but it seems like every week she's greetin that he's getting stick from "the fans". I follow a LOT of Ayr United people on soch' and Moffat is typically the only one people have anything good to say about. One of these people that loves negativity because they like playing victim.

[1nickydevlin]

Yesterday was a god awful .we look like a team going straight to league 1 .scary how far we have fell in the 2 years that mccall has been away . 3 mangers all as bad as one another  . Is Smith going to open his wallet in January for us too strengthen and hopefully stay in this league?.crowds down 500,600 since covid . A hard 1st year in charge for smith.

[diegomarahenry]

If anyone in charge of any level of the club thought that that was acceptable yesterday, then they should really consider their position.  It is like all the snide remarks about Hopkin "knowing what he is doing" when we chucked a lead and then lost to Dundee United. 

At any level of football, that was not a performance or level of effort that anyone should accept. To make snide comments, and I saw 2 or 3 from people at the club, saying fans love a moan after a defeat. 

In context, that was a 0-4 hounding at home, where for a period of 20 odd minutes of the second half we must have had 70% possession and zero shots on goal, most of it was our back 4 happily passing the ball to each other like we were 2-0 up and seeing out a game. 

The atmosphere dipped to a point it was like a pre-season friendly and you could hear players talking on the other side of the park, but nothing was done to lift it. from 2-0 down, no one in the ground thought we were going to come back in to the game. 

To use the ASDA analogy, if you were on a check-out and didn't scan two items of shopping and then decided that the whole transaction was lost and chucked everything in for free, You would get criticism.  

We have been poor for weeks and it has been glossed over by the games we have came back in. games that we maybe could have won if we had played the correct formation or line-up from the start. Tactical or player errors have probably cost us 10 points so far rather than the ability of the players but rescuing a point is seen almost as a win because under Hopkin, we would have just lost. 

Yesterdays game has removed some if not all of the good will towards Duffy and the mess he inherited (although he helped make some of it) and he needs to prove his worth now. Between now and Christmas we have Dunfermline, Albion Rovers, Morton, Hamilton and Queen of the south. 

After yesterday, I can see us getting 4 points out of that, dropping to the foot of the table and into the next round of the Scottish cup. 

If that is the case, Should Duffy be given a window plus a few games to fix it? I don't think so. We need at least 9 points from that run.

[itzdrk]

7 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

If anyone in charge of any level of the club thought that that was acceptable yesterday, then they should really consider their position.  It is like all the snide remarks about Hopkin "knowing what he is doing" when we chucked a lead and then lost to Dundee United. 

At any level of football, that was not a performance or level of effort that anyone should accept. To make snide comments, and I saw 2 or 3 from people at the club, saying fans love a moan after a defeat. 

In context, that was a 0-4 hounding at home, where for a period of 20 odd minutes of the second half we must have had 70% possession and zero shots on goal, most of it was our back 4 happily passing the ball to each other like we were 2-0 up and seeing out a game. 

The atmosphere dipped to a point it was like a pre-season friendly and you could hear players talking on the other side of the park, but nothing was done to lift it. from 2-0 down, no one in the ground thought we were going to come back in to the game. 

To use the ASDA analogy, if you were on a check-out and didn't scan two items of shopping and then decided that the whole transaction was lost and chucked everything in for free, You would get criticism.  

We have been poor for weeks and it has been glossed over by the games we have came back in. games that we maybe could have won if we had played the correct formation or line-up from the start. Tactical or player errors have probably cost us 10 points so far rather than the ability of the players but rescuing a point is seen almost as a win because under Hopkin, we would have just lost. 

Yesterdays game has removed some if not all of the good will towards Duffy and the mess he inherited (although he helped make some of it) and he needs to prove his worth now. Between now and Christmas we have Dunfermline, Albion Rovers, Morton, Hamilton and Queen of the south. 

After yesterday, I can see us getting 4 points out of that, dropping to the foot of the table and into the next round of the Scottish cup. 

If that is the case, Should Duffy be given a window plus a few games to fix it? I don't think so. We need at least 9 points from that run.

It really doesn't matter who our manager is, we built a league one quality team and probably need 9 players in January to make them any use.  It's obvious that won't happen so we just stumble to 8th/9th with Duffy.  

[UpInTheAyr]

1 minute ago, itzdrk said:

It really doesn't matter who our manager is, we built a league one quality team and probably need 9 players in January to make them any use.  It's obvious that won't happen so we just stumble to 8th/9th with Duffy.  

Would take that in a heartbeat...

 

[diegomarahenry]

1 minute ago, itzdrk said:

It really doesn't matter who our manager is, we built a league one quality team and probably need 9 players in January to make them any use.  It's obvious that won't happen so we just stumble to 8th/9th with Duffy.  

I was confident of this until yesterday, the halfarsed approach yesterday and the comments coming out of the club make me concerned that by boxing day, we will not only be bottom but a few points adrift by then.  

[UpInTheAyr]

Slow joe doesn't have the legs to be chasing that much in midfield, he's probably too much of a luxury we can't afford at the moment. Bradley and Maxwell are too light weight atm to be that effective although they do try. The set pieces were again honking yesterday and that's something we really need to capitalise on as we ain't going to be that effective in open play.

[Trogdor]

I know I've said this already but we really need to have a proper clear out. We retained too much of a team who finished 8th by virtue of goal difference and then picked up players from the team that finished 9th whilst losing some of our better players to other clubs. It always was a recipe for disaster. We're currently witnessing the result of such piss poor recruitment. 

We really need a minimum of 5 first team players in January. A central midfielder, a centre half, a right back, a right winger and a forward. A massive ask.

I don't think its knicker wetting btw. We have 3 massive games at the start of December (Morton (A); Hamilton (H) & Queens (A). We really need to come out of those with a decent points haul to ensure we're not tailed off when the window opens.

[diegomarahenry]

8 minutes ago, UpInTheAyr said:

Slow joe doesn't have the legs to be chasing that much in midfield, he's probably too much of a luxury we can't afford at the moment. Bradley and Maxwell are too light weight atm to be that effective although they do try. The set pieces were again honking yesterday and that's something we really need to capitalise on as we ain't going to be that effective in open play.

Kerr didn't have the legs but we played in a manner that accommodated that with the players round about him. He was effective in the first half because we used him properly. Second half when Partick sat in and put 10 men behind the ball, he should have been the one taking the ball and moving it from side to side looking for a runner or someone in space. 

What we had was no movement up top, Chalmers and Murdoch isolated in midfield, a back 4 passing it to each other and a manager seemingly content to watch it. Partick knew what they were doing, 2-0 down at home, we needed to come out and attack, they sat in and waited for a chance to break, they were not chasing the game and were happy to watch Baird and McCallister pass to each other for 20 minutes in our own half. 

Chalmers has been one of our better players in the last month or so as has Murdoch. 

[UpInTheAyr]

15 minutes ago, Trogdor said:

I know I've said this already but we really need to have a proper clear out. We retained too much of a team who finished 8th by virtue of goal difference and then picked up players from the team that finished 9th whilst losing some of our better players to other clubs. It always was a recipe for disaster. We're currently witnessing the result of such piss poor recruitment. 

We really need a minimum of 5 first team players in January. A central midfielder, a centre half, a right back, a right winger and a forward. A massive ask.

I don't think its knicker wetting btw. We have 3 massive games at the start of December (Morton (A); Hamilton (H) & Queens (A). We really need to come out of those with a decent points haul to ensure we're not tailed off when the window opens.

I don't think anyone at the time saw us picking up players from teams that did worse than us as a good thing, can't say we weren't warned. Got a feeling though that the only way we will get a clear out is if we drop to league 1.

[Trogdor]

9 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

Chalmers has been one of our better players in the last month or so as has Murdoch. 

I'm not sure that's saying much.

Every pass from Chalmers was sideways or backwards. He was just as culpable as the defence were for passing it back and forth. He needs fired into the sea at seasons end.

Murdoch was fine but he was trying to battle Docherty and Bannigan which is no easy feat.

[No_Problemo]

43 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

If anyone in charge of any level of the club thought that that was acceptable yesterday, then they should really consider their position.  It is like all the snide remarks about Hopkin "knowing what he is doing" when we chucked a lead and then lost to Dundee United. 

At any level of football, that was not a performance or level of effort that anyone should accept. To make snide comments, and I saw 2 or 3 from people at the club, saying fans love a moan after a defeat. 

In context, that was a 0-4 hounding at home, where for a period of 20 odd minutes of the second half we must have had 70% possession and zero shots on goal, most of it was our back 4 happily passing the ball to each other like we were 2-0 up and seeing out a game. 

The atmosphere dipped to a point it was like a pre-season friendly and you could hear players talking on the other side of the park, but nothing was done to lift it. from 2-0 down, no one in the ground thought we were going to come back in to the game. 

To use the ASDA analogy, if you were on a check-out and didn't scan two items of shopping and then decided that the whole transaction was lost and chucked everything in for free, You would get criticism.  

We have been poor for weeks and it has been glossed over by the games we have came back in. games that we maybe could have won if we had played the correct formation or line-up from the start. Tactical or player errors have probably cost us 10 points so far rather than the ability of the players but rescuing a point is seen almost as a win because under Hopkin, we would have just lost. 

Yesterdays game has removed some if not all of the good will towards Duffy and the mess he inherited (although he helped make some of it) and he needs to prove his worth now. Between now and Christmas we have Dunfermline, Albion Rovers, Morton, Hamilton and Queen of the south. 

After yesterday, I can see us getting 4 points out of that, dropping to the foot of the table and into the next round of the Scottish cup. 

If that is the case, Should Duffy be given a window plus a few games to fix it? I don't think so. We need at least 9 points from that run.

There is a pretty clear divide emerging between the club and fans IMO.

Absolutely no self awareness that the shambles within the club is the reason for the team and management we currently have. 

We are a better side with O’Connor and Bradley in it, but as someone else said the midfield were getting on the ball yesterday but had absolutely zero options. The movement up front was disgraceful. 

[HMIP]

We had 17 points from 16 games last season at the point Kerr was binned.   Can we beat that total this season?  At the moment we have 13 points from 14 games.  

Honestly not sure what a failure to do so would say about where we are at the moment.  Was Kerr hard done by?  Did we sack him at the wrong time?  Would he have got it right if the board had backed him?  Did the board just panic, and has that led us into an even deeper hole? 

[No_Problemo]

2 minutes ago, Trogdor said:

I'm not sure that's saying much.

Every pass from Chalmers was sideways or backwards. He was just as culpable as the defence were for passing it back and forth. He needs fired into the sea at seasons end.

Murdoch was fine but he was trying to battle Docherty and Bannigan which is no easy feat.

Just as I said above though, Chalmers never had any options to be able to play it forward -  at least he and Murdoch were brave enough to get on the ball knowing that this would be the case. 
 

I still don’t want to keep him but he has been one of our better players recently. 

[Trogdor]

12 minutes ago, HMIP said:

We had 17 points from 16 games last season at the point Kerr was binned.   Can we beat that total this season?  At the moment we have 13 points from 14 games.  

Honestly not sure what a failure to do so would say about where we are at the moment.  Was Kerr hard done by?  Did we sack him at the wrong time?  Would he have got it right if the board had backed him?  Did the board just panic, and has that led us into an even deeper hole? 

Kerr was replaced because we had 1 win in 10 games. It also looked like we were stuck in a rut. What's come since is the result of some atrocious decision making by the Chairman:

Appointing Hopkin on a 3 year deal rather than a short term deal.

Allowing Hopkin to assemble a big squad of jobbers from a team that finished below us.

Trying to talk Hopkin out of walking away.

Publicly saying we needed a central midfielder and not bringing one in.

I don't actually consider appointing Duffy a mistake (as yet). If we keep going as we are it will be though.

Edit to add - We do have the hub and stadium improvements though. Obviously, it doesn't make up for the utter rancid performances on the pitch.

Edited November 14, 2021 by Trogdor

[HMIP]

2 minutes ago, Trogdor said:

Kerr was replaced because we had 1 win in 10 games. It also looked like we were stuck in a rut. What's come since is the result of some atrocious decision making by the Chairman:

Appointing Hopkin on a 3 year deal rather than a short term deal.

Allowing Hopkin to assemble a big squad of jobbers from a team that finished below us.

Trying to talk Hopkin out of walking away.

Publicly saying we needed a central midfielder and not bringing one in.

I don't actually consider appointing Duffy a mistake (as yet). If we keep going as we are it will be though.

Edit to add - We do have the hub and stadium improvements though. Obviosuly, it doesn't make up for the utter rancid performances on the pitch.

Not trying to revise Kerr’s record.  The last 3 games at home in particular were very poor.  Kerr would surely argue there were factors that went against us such as the filthy penalty decision that decided the Hearts game and late injury call offs before the Inverness and Arbroath games.   

Were there any other mitigating factors that should have been taken into account before sacking your manager at the end of February, particularly given the board hadn’t identified a credible replacement?  Hopkin basically got the job by default and it looked like a stinking appointment from day one.  Neil Watt is probably the only other Ayr manager I can think of who lost all credibility in such a short period of time, though you could make a case for Mark Shanks and Mark Roberts as well I suppose.

The fact that we are, apparently, in a worse position than we were at the end of February does at least ask the question whether we got it right.