Ayr v Arbroath

[edinburghhonestman]

Not the greatest game of football but Ayr worked really hard. I thought the 5 across the middle really put in a shift. Murdoch in particular needs to be offered a new deal now. Having the midfield work so hard it just took so much pressure off the back four. Look like we can defend again. Even Baird and McGinty seemed to have an understanding.

As for Arbroath, too reliant on Nouble and final ball abysmal.

[AUcal]

It is lucky that arbroath seem to be unable to get the job done against us because in the 2nd half we were pretty poor and there for the taking. Two wins on the bounce ahead of a huge game against Morton next week. 

[clashcityrocker]

Arbroath were never going to go the whole season only losing 2 games, a defeat was coming at some point and at least it was not to one of the top 5 teams.

I felt the structure of the team was uneven, perhaps unable to adjust to playing without Dowds and we have several players who were stuck on the starting line.

Ayr's goal was a late xmas gift due to poor defending.

Subs in 2nd half made a difference, but not enough to break down Ayr's defence who were solid.

Good to have Nicky Low back playing - other than that Arbroath worst performance of the season.

[D'Jaffo]

Fantastic result from us today. We probably sat too deep in the second half but what made it work was that everyone knew there jobs and was giving 100% throughout the game.

We made Arbroath look rotten and I’d say they won’t go on to win the league now that they’ve lost Dowds and Nouble.

[mountzionbrae]

Arbroath very poor, Ayr not any better but managed to hold on to the own goal.

Stream wasn’t good, camera work and commentators were dire, particularly the old git. Never worth £15.

[lichtie23]

Still top! 
 

Nouble went out with a whimper today. A few nice flashes of skill but his final ball was particularly poor. Big improvement needed at Stark’s Park next week 

[D'Jaffo]

Also thought Brydon acquitted himself very well and fair play to Bullen for taking a chance on him.

[Lichtielegend]

No variation to our play really. Under no illusions that we play direct football, but it's dependent on getting to the 2nd ball. We're generally very good at it. Today, our midfield was non-existent first 30 mins and we had no end product in the 2nd half. A few glimpses from Nouble when he drifted wide but, again, final ball was poor.

 

Ayr, on the other hand, had little of the ball in our third yet scored (even if it was a comedy of errors) and forced Gaston into 2 brilliant saves.

 

Frustrating way to end a good run but hopefully the return to fitness of Nicky Low will help us mix our play up a bit.

[Tattie36]

Never saw the game today but we’ve actually been quite poor recently. Far too many aimless punts from back to front and, as touched on earlier, our delivery/final ball is atrocious.

Really need to start keeping it down and passing the ball again like we did earlier in the season. You would like to think that Lows return will help but we need everyone to have the same mentality. I’d like to see Henderson back in midfield too, he was excellent earlier in the season.

[ecocme]

Tremendous result and 2 wins on the bounce. Big well done to Bully in his first game but more so to Davie White and Tommy Tait for steadying the ship over the last few weeks and the last 2 results are pretty much down to them. Onwards ️

Also really pleasing to see another Academy player make his debut. 

Edited January 8, 2022 by ecocme

[AUFC 1910]

12 minutes ago, mountzionbrae said:

Arbroath very poor, Ayr not any better but managed to hold on to the own goal.

Stream wasn’t good, camera work and commentators were dire, particularly the old git. Never worth £15.

…and a happy new year to you too

[mugen_power]

Got to have the stream on mute, hoachin' patter and getting excited about the opposition being in our penalty area is a shite effort

Referee seemed desperate to give Arbroath everything in the last 10 minutes, some howling decisions

Murdy had an excellent game again imo, hopefully back to his pre-injury form from a couple seasons back

Young lad that came on for Moff had a nice turn of pace on him, obviously not enough time to judge him put fair play to Bully for giving him a shot...would never have happened under the two previous dinosaurs

[AyrExile]

We might have saved some cash if only they'd paid Duffy to go on holiday a few times during the season. Whyte could have stepped up and got us enough points to stay the division. Good day all round particularly with the way other results have gone also. Bullen will also have seen first hand how thin our squad is and the need to find some new players quickly. Somehow we've also found a bit of breathing space when a few weeks back the table and run of games looked bleak

[Smokerson]

Can’t really justify being negative about this Arbroath team whatsoever but we certainly didn’t play our best today, as some Ayr fans have mentioned they weren’t overly great either.

I certainly don’t agree with the point about us being “poor for weeks” 

Great to see Low back

[Superhursty7]

Hope not but can see a lot of parallels between Arbroath and ourself 3 seasons ago looked like we would have a chance of winning the league but the wheels fell off after new year, still hope you guys somehow win it though

[Farflung]

Well done Ayr - a real battling win. Arbroath piled on the pressure second half but their defence stood firm.  Conditions looked really difficult so any stretch of decent football was tricky.  I’m very happy with the Arbroath commitment and effort, some decent buildup play and a great swansong performance from Nouble.  Neither team carved out clear chances so it wasn’t a great surprise that a scramble/lucky break produced the only goal.   Despite our territorial advantage, Ayr just sat deep  and we didn’t find the final ball to unlock. Think we missed Jason Thomson but Nicky Low’s lively cameo was encouraging.   
I  found the commentary and the stream excellent, don’t know what issue some had with it.  I can’t even find fault with the officials. 
With most teams in this league making significant changes (managers, signings) and probably more competitive, I think we’ll find the second half of the season but our second half showing seemed good enough to get some kind of result in a few games.

Edited January 8, 2022 by Farflung

[1320Lichtie]

Thought stream was good no need to change angles though not sure what point in that was

 

Main guy was fine too just got overly excited at way too many things. Lassie was good

 

Hard to play against teams when they’re defending a lead. It’s not easy, just happy to camp in and lump it 

 

Our bad start and going a goal down is what killed us, the right hand side of the park is where we usually get all our joy going forward but Stewart and Gold way below their usual standards. Especially Scotty Stewart I wonder if he’s been ill or something 

 

Go again next week 

[diegomarahenry]

A draw may have been a fairer result on the balance of play but Ayr scored early enough for Arbroath to react and they never really did.

The first half. Nouble spent most of the time trying to buy free kicks rather than playing football. Much like he did in the second half the last time we played at Somerset. 
After half time he stayed on his feet and caused us a lot of problems but only one attention goal of note.

Did the game kick off late? I had the final whistle going about 5 to 5! 

[Rugbypark]

Arbroath very poor, Ayr not any better but managed to hold on to the own goal.
Stream wasn’t good, camera work and commentators were dire, particularly the old git. Never worth £15.

Thanks for today, Dabs [emoji106] Who was the commentator?

[keptie]

Had to happen eventually we've not lost for god knows how long. A bit of a shambolic goal to lose but once we did Ayr sat in and we struggled to make any good chances which fair play to Ayr was down to them making it difficult . Anyhow not getting despondent about it we are still in a fantastic position and also don't agree we have been poor lately we can't be expecting to turn over every team we play in this league.

Well played Ayr and was it windy btw.... don't know how mant times the commentator mentioned it.