Hursty

Just reminded me! Ditto! Which considering im entering for me plus 4 pals could have left me in a bit of bother haha.

As the selling club who don't want to sell, selling a player who so far isn't showing any signs at all of wanting to leave, there's surely absolutely no chance he leaves before August 31st. So let's just see what happens in the 3 league and 1 Betfred cup game until then (3 of which are against some of the 'big teams' that we have been / are fighting off for his signature).

Forgot about Conway. I lived away when he was a regular so I didnt see much of him - i remember never really rating him at the time, although his career since leaving suggests i was spectacularly wrong in that regard...

I'm just not used to even noticing when the transfer window closes - our players have generally been so rubbish for the last 10/15 years or so that the deadline has been pretty much irrelevant as nobody would have been remotely interested in paying us any money for them. Stevo the first time round and Balatoni the only ones I can think of off the top of my head, and even Balatoni had we sold him would hardly have caused much upset amongst the fans.

Plus to be fair - none of the figures mentioned are direct quotes. The Dundee fan on here mentioned a bid of £100k, whereas that newspaper link said they would pay a '5 figure sum'. Neither are even close to £250k, which if it is a true asking price would seem rather unlikely to be met for a player just out of league one with a year left on his deal. Hopefully.

Funnily enough i've had my old man messaging me all morning - he was planning on going down today or tomorrow to pick his season ticket up ahead of Saturday but is now holding off until he hears something from the club saying Shankland isny going on the cheap, having seen those reports! Very unfortunate timing....

This time last year I missed the first 2 goals away at Annan due to a 10 minute delay getting in as everyone was being searched - asked one of the policewomen why this was when it was hardly a big crowd / volatile fixture and she said they had been told that Ayr were deemed a 'high risk' crowd, that's obviously an away game but still possibly explains why we are charged quite a lot

Must have. That Shankland 3/1 anytime made no sense at the weekend, especially as they had Craig Moore as our favourite at 11/4, and even if fit he was never starting. Pretty sure Shankland was the same price as crocked Thistle midfielder Stuart Bannigan!

I've even youtubed Partick v Ayr and somehow seem to have found a video of Chris Erskine score the opener against us at Somerset on my 28th birthday when I was in the hospitality. Spotted Andy Geggan looking very young and centre midfieldy in the post mortem walk back to the centre circle.

Without wanting to dampen everyones spirits, during radio commentary Billy Dodds tipped us for 4th or 5th today, so we are probably fucked.

Killie home or Hearts away for me. Or I suppose Thistle at home if they get it through just for the novelty of beating them 3 times in 4 weeks.

You're welcome lads. Free money for oor Shanksy. Beautiful man that he is.

Shankland 3/1 anytime scorer tomorrow with bet365 - im having some of that

So do we know if Harvie is missing the opening league game or not?

Geggan going off in warm up is a big worry though - if he is going to be stop start and never fully fit again then we absolutely need another defender signed from somewhere..

Was 29 last season - 100%

I might be slightly out, but it's definitely 35 goals in I think 36 games now. Almost certain it was 29 in 33 last year. First goal in all 4 games v title rivals Raith sums up how important he is.

Aye I totally get that - it's more just the fact that the exact same mistakes from a more experienced keeper would be less focussed on, certainly in their first few games. Fleming being a perfect example. Still - only time will tell - fingers well and truly crossed that he gets a good few solid games under his belt to begin with.

The thing that bugs me re: the keeper is that it seems to be the only position where fans seem to have less patience with a youngster than they would with someone 'experienced'. I was thinking as an example Scully at Morton - saw folk using him as an example of an experienced keeper we should be signing - yet look at the 2 errors he made on his Morton debut against us. I cant help but feel that is Doohan had made those errors on his debut he would have been slaughtered, but if we had signed Scully and he did it, he would have been given a chance before being written off.

All of a sudden Tuesday becomes a big game - any win and it's a "group winners final" v Partick a week today which is then of course immediately followed up with a rematch in the league opener. That's of course assuming Partick beat Albion, which they will.

I'm very new to twitter (i know) but thats got me chuckling. 4 cheap pints, a gallon of water, a wee black tactics book, Dobbie and the gaffer. Higgys wet dream haha

Aye - I bored far too many of my non Ayr supporting pals in Smiths watching De Gea v Portugal and Lloris in the final among others with rants along those lines.

Some header from big Harvie for the goal though eh? Crazy to think he owns a farm.

Yup. And the thing is, i'm certain that he WILL make mistakes. Some will probably lead to goals. But i'd wager that every single keeper in the league will do the same. In my summer boredom I watched a load of the highlights from last time we were up, and Fleming made far more errors tha. j can remember - they just didnt get focussed on that much. Hopefully he has a solid few weeks. A clean sheet today should help.

I haven't seen him for us yet, just Scotland u21s so can't really comment - but it's clear that some folk are going to absolutely slaughter him no matter what he does simply due to him not having experience. Would have been the exact same with McCrorie.