Billy Dodds Highlanders v Lee Bullen's Seasiders

[Trogdor]

56 minutes ago, Tam_O_Shanter said:

It was just a Musondastanding.

[SandyCromarty]

We should have won that game today as we strolled that first half, Ayr were shocking and easily the worst team I've seen at Caley stadium this season, even Highland League Brechin were way ahead of Ayr, how the f**k are they top of the table and lets be honest with them being the top placed team what does that say about the rest of us?

I wasn't too keen on Shaw in the beginning but he has come along and showed some good football today, Boyd kept Ayr busy from mid to front and Billy put in a good shift, Carson must stay in the middle as he impressed and overall I was pleased with the team performance given the amount of injuries.

But truth be told that's six games without a win.

[No_Problemo]

3 minutes ago, SandyCromarty said:

We should have won that game today as we strolled that first half, Ayr were shocking and easily the worst team I've seen at Caley stadium this season, even Highland League Brechin were way ahead of Ayr, how the f**k are they top of the table and lets be honest with them being the top placed team what does that say about the rest of us?

I wasn't too keen on Shaw in the beginning but he has come along and showed some good football today, Boyd kept Ayr busy from mid to front and Billy put in a good shift, Carson must stay in the middle as he impressed and overall I was pleased with the team performance given the amount of injuries.

But truth be told that's six games without a win.

[AUcal]

4 minutes ago, SandyCromarty said:

We should have won that game today as we strolled that first half, Ayr were shocking and easily the worst team I've seen at Caley stadium this season, even Highland League Brechin were way ahead of Ayr, how the f**k are they top of the table and lets be honest with them being the top placed team what does that say about the rest of us?

 

[D'Jaffo]

We should have won that game today as we strolled that first half, Ayr were shocking and easily the worst team I've seen at Caley stadium this season, even Highland League Brechin were way ahead of Ayr, how the f**k are they top of the table and lets be honest with them being the top placed team what does that say about the rest of us?
I wasn't too keen on Shaw in the beginning but he has come along and showed some good football today, Boyd kept Ayr busy from mid to front and Billy put in a good shift, Carson must stay in the middle as he impressed and overall I was pleased with the team performance given the amount of injuries.
But truth be told that's six games without a win.

Least you aren’t absolutely seething, Wee Sandy.

[rb123!]

5 hours ago, 1nickydevlin said:

Ashford is mince

Still not as good as his fish & chips from the masterchef challenge with his prize being getting in the starting 11 today 

5 hours ago, Trogdor said:

McAllister is infuriating, any time he gets forward he passes it behind the man. He's not a fullback.

We're actually missing Houston, least he gets forward on the overlap but can be a bit vulnerable at times at the back.

McAllister is vulnerable at the back but also offers f**k all going forward.

 

5 hours ago, OneTeamInAyrsh1re said:

Why was ecrepont not playing? Reading has been gash for weeks, disaster from bullen. 

Would imagine he'll get a start against Pollok to try and make an impression

[AUcal]

Aye ecrepont for the Pollok game.

Hope we don't to anything too rash and rest Dipo or something. I want to see him play as much as possible, especially against a WoSFL defence. What a player. Despite our overall performance he did manage to have some great moments today , and took the goal well.

Edited November 19, 2022 by AuAl

[D'Jaffo]

I think there’s a lot of hyperbole around the likes of Ashford, McGinty, McKenzie and Reading. Are they very good? Reading can be but the rest are just average Championship players. Nothing special but are pretty competent when faced with other Championship players.

Ashford is pretty much down a hole right now in terms of scoring. IIRC correctly he’s not scored since the Raith game last season. It’s absolutely going to have affected his confidence. The best thing Bullen can do is realise that he’s better served playing wide left where his work rate and pace can be used to get us up the pitch without being required to do anything in the box. As has been shown, he’s quite adept in this role.

McKenzie is the opposite in terms of positioning. He’s clearly best used as a second striker who does the dirty work and can benefit from the space that Dipo creates. He’s started getting the odd goal as well and has done well in setting them up as well for other players. He’s never going to be good enough for a higher level but I think he has a future with us so long as we have another forward who’s as capable as Akinyemi is at scoring goals.

McGinty was written off before he signed his contract with us. He’s also, in many ways, our most improved player since Bullen came in. He’s still only a 3rd or 4th choice defender and his inclusion over Kirk at times has irked a lot of us.

People will say we simply cannot finish in the playoffs with these guys playing for us. I say that’s utter nonsense as the teams around us are also full of bang average players that every so often either have a game above their level or make a mistake and let the team down. We aren’t talking about needing a squad of players that are so much better than what we have. I think that if we can avoid any major injuries or suspensions and keep Dipo then there’s no reason why we can’t finish 4th at an absolute minimum. We absolutely need to see a better level of performance and maybe need to freshen things up in January but I’d say we’re doing okay just now. The biggest concern right now is how long Kirk is out for. He is absolutely massive for us and will need replaced if it’s a long term injury. Next 3 games is all about grinding out points and getting into January to try and regroup.

[PB1994]

You can have 10 bang average players and finish in the playoffs if you have someone up front like Ayr do. With Chalmers and Mullin our wide, I presume he is still decent, there is no reason why they can’t challenge for the title.

No idea what the rest of your best 11 are like tbh.

[Highland Capital]

Duffy was good.  Carson was good.  Doran was good.  Shaw is 100x better than he was a couple of months ago.  How we didn't win that game is a travesty.

[UpInTheAyr]

16 minutes ago, PB1994 said:

You can have 10 bang average players and finish in the playoffs if you have someone up front like Ayr do. With Chalmers and Mullin our wide, I presume he is still decent, there is no reason why they can’t challenge for the title.

No idea what the rest of your best 11 are like tbh.

Mullin was off it today for some strange reason.

Like way, way off it.

[Stephen Malkmus]

4 hours ago, 1nickydevlin said:

"A point at Inverness is a fantastic result."

B. Dodds, 2022

[jm86]

20 minutes ago, Highland Capital said:

Duffy was good.  Carson was good.  Doran was good.  Shaw is 100x better than he was a couple of months ago.  How we didn't win that game is a travesty.

Maybe something to do with the fact you had 2 shots on target in 90 minutes, as opposed to 8 by Ayr. We've been crap for weeks now, but still manage to manufacture plenty of chances. Quite strange really. 

[Highland Capital]

1 hour ago, jm86 said:

Maybe something to do with the fact you had 2 shots on target in 90 minutes, as opposed to 8 by Ayr. We've been crap for weeks now, but still manage to manufacture plenty of chances. Quite strange really. 

Shots on target that are straight at the keeper and move slower than a lawn bowl can make some stats deceiving.  

[SandyCromarty]

11 hours ago, D'Jaffo said:

Least you aren’t absolutely seething, Wee Sandy.

Not angry at all, I'm quite happy with the result and our game in the first half, I thought with the amount of injuries we were in for a hiding.

No my post was aimed at the state of the Scottish game presently when I commented that I was surprised that AU were top of the league with what I saw as an abysmal performance especially in that first half.

I'll give you an example of how I see our game, Dipo Akenyemi has been a revelation for Ayr and is a top goalscorer for them yet this lad spent 8 years with 11 different teams in the far reaches of english football which some fans would consider a footballing wilderness, he is released by Dulwich, (Dulwich?), joins Welling United? which just avoids relegation and then is picked up, probably for pennies, by Ayr United. And overnight he is a goalscoring sensation, even on my way home Willie Millar on the radio is saying he will probably walk into a Scottish PL team come January.

And that's where I'm at with Scottish football, a player playing at the level of St Neots Town is now considered top class for our game, so is he the brilliant player as described or is it the truth that our teams are shite and cannot defend.

Andy Robertson in a recent radio interview said that there was far too much negativity in the Scottish game.

[RiG]

Signing players from jobber teams down south worked well for us for a sustained period TBF. 

[PB1994]

Brexit has also made it much harder for clubs to get foreign players. Scottish Championship clubs are going to be looking at that level a lot more often from now on. As players further up the leagues will be wanting bigger money and teams in better leagues will be picking them up when they might not have been interested in the past.

[RiG]

Odd game looking back at it. I thought Ayr were on top before we took the lead. They had some nice chances to open the scoring the best of which fell to Akinyemi (I think) which drew a fine stop at close range from MacKay. Despite it being against the run of play Shaw took his goal well. Not sure who played the ball through to him but he rounded the keeper well to score.

After that I think we were the better side and looked a lot more comfortable than we did at the start of the game. We were probably helped when O'Connor went off injured. He looked very lively and was keeping Duffy and Ram occupied with some clever runs in behind them before his injury.

Second half I think we started quite well with some half chances created before Ayr got their equaliser a little against the run of play. Chalmers had been forcing Harper back since he came on and he broke down the ICT left and crossed for MacKenzie to find the net at the second attempt. After this we seemed to completely collapse and Ayr were on top and looking certain to get the three points. It was no real surprise when Akinyemi got his goal. After what must have been the millionth long ball towards Mckay one of Ayr's 10 ft tall defenders easily won the aerial dual and his header sent Akinyemi off towards goal and he finished well past MacKay.

Fortunately, despite seemingly throwing away at least 1 point, we got an equaliser when some scrappy play at the edge of the Ayr box saw the ball fall to Shaw and he got a shot away early sending a low drive across goal past the Ayr keeper. Another well taken strike.

The game seemed to change when Ayr had to make changes. They looked weaker when O'Conner went off and much stronger when Chalmers came on. For ICT we played some decent stuff at times but too often there were some bizarre passages of play where we continued to smash the ball towards Mckay who won almost no headers all day against the giant Ayr CBs. No idea why we persisted with this approach.

Shaw had a good game, Devine was a reassuring presence when he was on the pitch and I think Harper did well until he had to go up against Chalmers who took him to the cleaners a couple of times. Decent away support up the road from Ayr as well.

[RiG]

 

[SandyCromarty]

21 hours ago, RiG said:

Signing players from jobber teams down south worked well for us for a sustained period TBF. 

Correct. Marley Watkins a prime example, and you have re-enforced my argument that non senior league english players prove better than our home grown players.

And that imbalance did not exist some years back which would suggest that the Scottish game is way behind.

And that was clearly shown in the Champions league this season.