The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[HMIP]

9 minutes ago, Robbo63 said:

I would be astounded if Kerr is not Ayr United manager next season  , he needs a chance to show what he can do with no Covid restrictions 

If we get relegated, his position would probably be untenable as I don’t see the fans being so generous.  Otherwise, I would fully expect him to stay.   Ironically, covid restrictions have helped a bit as the lack of crowds has probably bought him some time he might not normally have gotten..  The Queens game would doubtless have been a real fault line for him as we would have taken a big crowd on Boxing Day, who would have witnessed first hand a quite appalling capitulation.  At home, we’ve struggled to muster a shot at goal much less score an actual goal, so my guess is the sharks would have been circling.  Harsh perhaps, but the come down from the last couple of seasons under McCall would have been trying folks patience, particularly as Kerr was almost no one’s choice for manager.   But as I say, the new signings look decent, so hopefully we can finish the season strongly.

[Finlay21]

1 minute ago, HMIP said:

If we get relegated, his position would probably be untenable as I don’t see the fans being so generous.  Otherwise, I would fully expect him to stay.   Ironically, covid restrictions have helped a bit as the lack of crowds has probably bought him some time he might not normally have gotten..  The Queens game would doubtless have been a real fault line for him as we would have taken a big crowd on Boxing Day, who would have witnessed first hand a quite appalling capitulation.  At home, we’ve struggled to muster a shot at goal much less score an actual goal, so my guess is the sharks would have been circling.  Harsh perhaps, but the come down from the last couple of seasons under McCall would have been trying folks patience, particularly as Kerr was almost no one’s choice for manager.   But as I say, the new signings look decent, so hopefully we can finish the season strongly.

Who’s to say how games would have gone with a crowd in the stadium ! I think along with a large majority of fans I have spoken to that results for most teams would be different if they had fans there cheering them on  , 

[rb123!]

If he's to stay another body coming onto the management team is a must IMO.

McCall had 2 coaches with Scally and Stewart so i don't see why Kerr has only got McCardle.

[HMIP]

9 minutes ago, Robbo63 said:

Who’s to say how games would have gone with a crowd in the stadium ! I think along with a large majority of fans I have spoken to that results for most teams would be different if they had fans there cheering them on  , 

I doubt that crowds would magically have transformed Roscoe into a centre back, Reading into s left back or Anderson or Cameron into strikers.  There are good and obvious reasons why we’ve struggled this season.  In fairness, the players Kerr has signed are a recognition of those problems and look to be an upgrade on what we had.  Coupled with Walsh being fit and Muirhead finally being shifted to centre back means we do look a better unit.  Was the Alloa game a turning point or a false dawn?  The insipid performance against Hearts was a real let down for me - bottom line is that we need to get the finger out and start delivering, otherwise we’ll be staring up the arse of play offs against the likes of Cove, Airdrie and you know who.

[D'Jaffo]

I doubt that crowds would magically have transformed Roscoe into a centre back, Reading into s left back or Anderson or Cameron into strikers.  There are good and obvious reasons why we’ve struggled this season.  In fairness, the players Kerr has signed are a recognition of those problems and look to be an upgrade on what we had.  Coupled with Walsh being fit and Muirhead finally being shifted to centre back means we do look a better unit.  Was the Alloa game a turning point or a false dawn?  The insipid performance against Hearts was a real let down for me - bottom line is that we need to get the finger out and start delivering, otherwise we’ll be staring up the arse of play offs against the likes of Cove, Airdrie and you know who.

You ask any player and they’ll tell you that having fans behind them can make a massive difference to their confidence or morale. Funnily enough we’ve been fine at home and it’s our away performances that have let us down so who knows how big a difference they’d have made.

[HMIP]

Just now, D'Jaffo said:

You ask any player and they’ll tell you that having fans behind them can make a massive difference to their confidence or morale. Funnily enough we’ve been fine at home and it’s our away performances that have let us down so who knows how big a difference they’d have made.

And equally, fans getting on the back of players who aren’t performing can push things the other way.  I think the whole crowd thing is just an excuse trotted out by teams who are struggling - it’s the same for both teams, so I don’t buy for a second  that it affects some teams more than others.  Seems to be an excuse trotted out by Liverpool and Celtic based on some sense of their own exceptionalism and their own fans being particularly special.  Meanwhile Man City and Rangers have galloped over the hill and are out of sight.  

We are where we are because the defence has been awful and we can’t score goals.  

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, HMIP said:

And equally, fans getting on the back of players who aren’t performing can push things the other way.  I think the whole crowd thing is just an excuse trotted out by teams who are struggling - it’s the same for both teams, so I don’t buy for a second  that it affects some teams more than others.  Seems to be an excuse trotted out by Liverpool and Celtic based on some sense of their own exceptionalism and their own fans being particularly special.  Meanwhile Man City and Rangers have galloped over the hill and are out of sight.  

We are where we are because the defence has been awful and we can’t score goals.  

Personally I don't think we're in such a bad position and all this talk of relegation is just ridiculous, over and above this, the defence have been pretty good and pretty consistent with the exception of a few minutes of madness on two or three separate occasions.

As for not scoring goals, we managed 4 against Alloa last week and created quite a few more excellent chances and the match against Hearts was only decided by a criminal refereeing decision.

Wright looks like he's made a big difference to our balance and Ndabo looks total class, McGavin we've not seen enough of obviously, but comes with a good reputation and pedigree, so I'm not having any of this overly negative stuff and fully expect us to finish in the top 6 this season with the promotion play offs still a very realistic possibility !!!

[ayrunitedfw]

While having no fans will have an impact it’s the same for all teams so I don’t think you can say we would be be in a better off league position if fans were in. 

[HMIP]

3 minutes ago, WATTOO said:

Personally I don't think we're in such a bad position and all this talk of relegation is just ridiculous, over and above this, the defence have been pretty good and pretty consistent with the exception of a few minutes of madness on two or three separate occasions.

As for not scoring goals, we managed 4 against Alloa last week and created quite a few more excellent chances and the match against Hearts was only decided by a criminal refereeing decision.

Wright looks like he's made a big difference to our balance and Ndabo looks total class, McGavin we've not seen enough of obviously, but comes with a good reputation and pedigree, so I'm not having any of this overly negative stuff and fully expect us to finish in the top 6 this season with the promotion play offs still a very realistic possibility !!!

We’ve won 2 games in 2.5 months, both of them against a pretty poor Alloa side.  I hope the 4 goals against Alloa are a turning point, but otherwise we’re pretty much averaging a goal a game in our home matches which is desperately poor.  You say talk of relegation is ridiculous - I can only point you to the form and league tables which tell a very different story.  However, it does almost feel as if we are going into the second half of the season with a new team.  Jury is out on Wright - was a handful for an hour against Alloa but was anonymous against Hearts.

[Finlay21]

39 minutes ago, HMIP said:

I doubt that crowds would magically have transformed Roscoe into a centre back, Reading into s left back or Anderson or Cameron into strikers.  There are good and obvious reasons why we’ve struggled this season.  In fairness, the players Kerr has signed are a recognition of those problems and look to be an upgrade on what we had.  Coupled with Walsh being fit and Muirhead finally being shifted to centre back means we do look a better unit.  Was the Alloa game a turning point or a false dawn?  The insipid performance against Hearts was a real let down for me - bottom line is that we need to get the finger out and start delivering, otherwise we’ll be staring up the arse of play offs against the likes of Cove, Airdrie and you know who.

No , the fans would not have transformed them into better players , Kerr gave them their chance and after failing to perform on a regular basis he took them out the team , good management there , gave them their chance and react accordingly 

[Finlay21]

15 minutes ago, ayrunitedfw said:

While having no fans will have an impact it’s the same for all teams so I don’t think you can say we would be be in a better off league position if fans were in. 

I tend to disagree with you on this point , a number of players  along with McCall mentioned numerous times last season that the fans drove  them on to win tight games , yes it’s the same for all teams but some fans give more vocal and encouragement support more than others , so who’s to say we would not be in a better position 

[HMIP]

2 minutes ago, Robbo63 said:

I tend to disagree with you on this point , a number of players  along with McCall mentioned numerous times last season that the fans drove  them on to win tight games , yes it’s the same for all teams but some fans give more vocal and encouragement support more than others , so who’s to say we would not be in a better position 

You’re contradicting yourself.  On one hand you’re clinging to this idea that we’ve been poor because we’ve been disproportionately affected by no crowds while at the same time praising Kerr for the significant and highly necessary mid season surgery he’s undertaken to address glaring shortcomings.  As far as McCall’s comments go, I’ve been at more music concerts than I care to remember where the lead singer has assured us we’re the best and noisiest crowd in the world...

[BukyOHare]

Take Hearts out of it and as always the Championship is a hugely tight league. I get it that there is huge room for improvement in results, but I would honestly say there are genuine and realistic grounds for looking positively to our future. 

I look at our squad, the potential in our management team, yes undoubtedly they are still learning on the job, an overall positivity over our recruitment which is a huge part of success and an owner that has a big picture vision for our future. 

I don't see many other Championship teams who have the same genuine grounds for optimism. 

All of the above in the middle of a global pandemic in extraordinary times.

For those calling for a change of manager, be careful what you wish for. Have a look at the usual list of applicants we are likely to choose from.

The grass is not always greener on the other side. 

[Skyline Drifter]

1 hour ago, HMIP said:

I doubt that crowds would magically have transformed Roscoe into a centre back, Reading into s left back or Anderson or Cameron into strikers. 

Brian Rice seems to have turned Anderson into an excellent striker inside two games to be fair. 

[D'Jaffo]

Brian Rice seems to have turned Anderson into an excellent striker inside two games to be fair. 

It seems to help when the player actually bothers his arse and tries to do well.

[UpInTheAyr]

16 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Brian Rice seems to have turned Anderson into an excellent striker inside two games to be fair. 

Yip, I'm not sure Anderson is all at fault for his less than productive spell with us.

[rb123!]

26 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Brian Rice seems to have turned Anderson into an excellent striker inside two games to be fair. 

Yes because he's not upfront isolated on his own, feeding off hoof balls which are ending up about 10 yards either side of where he was positioned. Think with a 3 of Walsh/Smith/McCowan behind him we might have got a bit more out of him.

However the fundamental issue for me is Kerr seems hellbent on playing 1 upfront on his own, which seems to be "modern" way to play football compared to the old fashioned 4/4/2. In our last two games with Wright upfront on his own i've already seen instances, Hearts game especially, where he held up the ball well and the nearest person to lay if off to was nowhere to be seen. 

Think Kerr should try Smith upfront with Wright to do a similar role which Moffatt did alongside Shankland. Would be intrigued to know how many goals we scored in McCall's last 30 games compared to Kerrs first 30. I'd expect the difference to be quite staggering...

[D'Jaffo]

Think Kerr should try Smith upfront with Wright to do a similar role which Moffatt did alongside Shankland. Would be intrigued to know how many goals we scored in McCall's last 30 games compared to Kerrs first 30. I'd expect the difference to be quite staggering...

Smith is naturally a number 10 and a different type of player to Moffat. I really didn’t think Wright was too isolated on Friday but the issue was more that we didn’t actually use him to get the ball up the park. For months we’ve been punting the ball up to the small Anderson and useless Cameron but the minute we actually get a proper striker in who can hold the ball up we stop playing that way.

Anderson is obviously a fairly decent player but after seeing him play for us I’m baffled as to why we actually signed him. Kerr’s first signing for us was Aaron Drinan who fitted into the way Kerr wanted us to play so when we couldn’t get him back in the summer it would’ve made sense to bring in a player that was similar to him.

[AyrExile]

1 hour ago, HMIP said:

You’re contradicting yourself.  On one hand you’re clinging to this idea that we’ve been poor because we’ve been disproportionately affected by no crowds while at the same time praising Kerr for the significant and highly necessary mid season surgery he’s undertaken to address glaring shortcomings.  As far as McCall’s comments go, I’ve been at more music concerts than I care to remember where the lead singer has assured us we’re the best and noisiest crowd in the world...

It wasn’t too long ago that a few were offering up the abuse being hurled from fans as a reason we struggled at home

[D'Jaffo]

It wasn’t too long ago that a few were offering up the abuse being hurled from fans as a reason we struggled at home

You can have it both ways you know.

In a lot of games this season it looks like the players are playing as though they’re in a training match. And that goes for opposition players as well. Having crowds in can give the players a bit of an atmosphere to play to and give have an impact especially when they score or concede a goal. There’s no doubt that the boo boys would’ve been on the backs of certain players this season but that can sometimes help players depending on their mentality. But you’re not going to tell me that you’d be better at your job with someone within earshot of you screaming obscenities at you?

My point is having crowds in would’ve made games a bit different this season for all the teams. It’s not going to make players better but it might’ve helped players stay switched on which seemed to be our issue when it came to the quick fire goals we’ve conceded and collapses away from home.