AyrTroopMajor

Think this one is hard to answer as an Ayr fan given that our team this season and last season are significantly better than anything that we have managed to field at this level since the days of Gordon Dalziel and Bill Barr. I am certainly used to being played off the park at this level but was never clear whether that was down the the high standard of opposition that we were facing or whether we were just, yet again, absolutely rancid relegation-fodder. I think we are a bit of an anomaly here. We are better than we have been before, and everyone else is probably worse.

Agree with much of what you have said but I do think that standing areas can certainly help in terms of atmosphere. Somerset technically holds 10,000 people, exactly like Airdrie. If there are only 1,000 there, it is still a good atmosphere when shooting towards the home end with fans all standing behind the goal. Compare that with Airdrie if they have a crowd of 1,000. They are all sitting along the side of the pitch, spread out in a stand that holds 3,000, with the end behind the goal empty. There is certainly a different feel despite the crowd total being the same.

I think you are probably correct in that the club seemed to have stagnated a little under his management, with a good start regularly being followed by a shambolic end to the season, thereby resulting in a mid-table finish. For it to be considered the correct decision, the club had to then appoint the correct man to take things to the next level. As you say, they failed miserably and are currently being thoroughly shown up by Union.

This is what you're wanting. A big fence and the chance to exchange some 'views'.

Not sure why people are so certain we'll get beat by Ross County. They're very beatable, especially at home.

Happy to come at this thread from a different perspective - staying at Somerset after the Scottish Executive pissed all over out plans for a new stadium was a prime example of a blessing in disguise. Somerset is a hole, but what a brilliant place to watch football, especially when there's a good away support in the Railway End and both teams are shooting towards their own fans. Wouldn't trade it for anything. The only thing I wish we had was a pub right beside the ground and perhaps a slightly higher level of sanitation in the toilet department.

Last night's episode was excellent entertainment.

Hertha need to punt Ante Covic immediately and bring the Prince of Berlin home before it is too late.

An 87th minute equaliser against Annan at Ibrox. They wish.

To be fair to him, he was perhaps played out of position and was also not helped by being part of one of the worst Ayr teams of all time. Still though, rancid. Was a toss-up between him and Kyle McAusland.

Will fight you.

GK: DAVID HUTTON - An absolute lunatic. Fumbled his way through his career with Ayr United. Guilty of allowing some utterly powder-puff efforts slip past him, he would then spring back to his feet like peak Shawn Michaels and roar at everyone within earshot, regardless of whether they were at fault or even on the pitch. RB: ADAM HUNTER - Pish. His only, and I mean only, highlight was flooring the late (RIP Amigo) Arnold Peralta at Ibrox which got 45,000 H**s spewing with rage. CB: SCOTT McKENNA - Make no mistake, there was absolutely nothing about Scott McKenna during his time at Ayr to suggest that he was bound for anything other than a mediocre career with Burntisland Shipyard. The fact that he is now a Scotland and Aberdeen regular is still a head-scratcher for anyone who watched his spell at Somerset. Rotten. CB: CRAIG BEATTIE - Yep. Craig Beattie. Formerly of Hearts and Celtic. A striker. Tell that to Mark Roberts, who gave Craig Beattie the number 6 shirt and made him play Centre Back for a home game against Brechin City. In a result that shocked absolutely no-one, Brechin left Somerset with a 2-0 win. LB: KEVIN McKINLAY - Absolutely howling defender. The fact that Stirling Albion took him off our hands halfway through the 2014/15 season was probably the highlight of that year. RM: ANTHONY MARENGHI - Struggled a bit with this one but feel compelled to mention Anthony Marenghi who, and I am not exaggerating, tore Premier League Motherwell a new one in a pre-season friendly and left us thinking that we had signed a magician. Nope. Shite. CM: PAUL CAIRNEY - Scraped through the Playoff Final in 2016 having been given the runaround by Stranraer for the full 210 minutes. Ian McCall decided to take Paul Cairney, one of Stranraer's main men in that final, in the hope that he could be the key to unlocking Championship defences. The significantly overweight Cairney contributed very little to our team and was promptly binned after our inevitable relegation. CM: GARY HARKINS - An absolute charlatan. Seems to be that he is either a huge hit at a club or a catastrophic failure. Sadly, in this instance he was a complete waste of a shirt. Was very heavily scrutinised due to the significant wage that he was on, and failed to live up to the talisman figure that Ian McCall hoped he would be. LM: JUNIOR MENDES - Only just makes the list as he was gone by the summer of 2010 following yet another relegation. On the final day of the 2009/10 season, Ayr travelled to Cappielow needing a win to stay up. At 2-1 down, Junior Mendes walked off the pitch because he needed to renew the tape on his wrists. Not his socks. His WRISTS. Shockingly enough, we lost and went down. ST: KEVIN KYLE - A disaster of a signing, one of many made by Mark Roberts. Kyle arrived from Rangers and made it his mission to lambast every single member of the team for any minor errors they may or may not have made. His finishing was suspect, his work rate was questionable and his inclusion on this list is absolutely justified. ST: DAVID WINTERS - Many an Ayr fan would probably chuck Farid El Alagui in here, but I would disagree entirely. Farid arrived in January of 2017 and scored 3 goals in 11 games in the Championship, in a team that were struggling badly. David Winters, on the other hand, only managed one more goal than El Alagui despite making 30 appearances for the club, and at a lower level as well. A jobber who belonged in the Juniors, and that is exactly where he headed after leaving (via 1 appearance for Queen's Park). Honourable mentions to Jonathan 'On the Register' Tiffoney, Austin McCann, Gordon Pope and all the other utterly useless donkeys that have contributed to a decade which featured two relegations and coming within a bawhair of League Two status.

Thought it was hilarious a week or so ago when Jonathan Woodgate claimed that the social media comments calling for him to be sacked as Boro boss could have been Sunderland or Newcastle fans pretending to be Boro fans. As if Sunderland fans (especially with the absolute state of things there) and Newcastle fans would even be remotely arsed enough to do that. So deluded.

Stupendous thread idea, here we go.. GK: DAVID HUTTON - An absolute lunatic. Fumbled his way through his career with Ayr United. Guilty of allowing some utterly powder-puff efforts slip past him, he would then spring back to his feet like peak Shawn Michaels and roar at everyone within earshot, regardless of whether they were at fault or even on the pitch. RB: ADAM HUNTER - Pish. His only, and I mean only, highlight was flooring the late (RIP Amigo) Arnold Peralta at Ibrox which got 45,000 H**s spewing with rage. CB: SCOTT McKENNA - Make no mistake, there was absolutely nothing about Scott McKenna during his time at Ayr to suggest that he was bound for anything other than a mediocre career with Burntisland Shipyard. The fact that he is now a Scotland and Aberdeen regular is still a head-scratcher for anyone who watched his spell at Somerset. Rotten. CB: CRAIG BEATTIE - Yep. Craig Beattie. Formerly of Hearts and Celtic. A striker. Tell that to Mark Roberts, who gave Craig Beattie the number 6 shirt and made him play Centre Back for a home game against Brechin City. In a result that shocked absolutely no-one, Brechin left Somerset with a 2-0 win. LB: KEVIN McKINLAY - Absolutely howling defender. The fact that Stirling Albion took him off our hands halfway through the 2014/15 season was probably the highlight of that year. RM: ANTHONY MARENGHI - Struggled a bit with this one but feel compelled to mention Anthony Marenghi who, and I am not exaggerating, tore Premier League Motherwell a new one in a pre-season friendly and left us thinking that we had signed a magician. Nope. Shite. CM: PAUL CAIRNEY - Scraped through the Playoff Final in 2016 having been given the runaround by Stranraer for the full 210 minutes. Ian McCall decided to take Paul Cairney, one of Stranraer's main men in that final, in the hope that he could be the key to unlocking Championship defences. The significantly overweight Cairney contributed very little to our team and was promptly binned after our inevitable relegation. CM: GARY HARKINS - An absolute charlatan. Seems to be that he is either a huge hit at a club or a catastrophic failure. Sadly, in this instance he was a complete waste of a shirt. Was very heavily scrutinised due to the significant wage that he was on, and failed to live up to the talisman figure that Ian McCall hoped he would be. LM: JUNIOR MENDES - Only just makes the list as he was gone by the summer of 2010 following yet another relegation. On the final day of the 2009/10 season, Ayr travelled to Cappielow needing a win to stay up. At 2-1 down, Junior Mendes walked off the pitch because he needed to renew the tape on his wrists. Not his socks. His WRISTS. Shockingly enough, we lost and went down. ST: KEVIN KYLE - A disaster of a signing, one of many made by Mark Roberts. Kyle arrived from Rangers and made it his mission to lambast every single member of the team for any minor errors they may or may not have made. His finishing was suspect, his work rate was questionable and his inclusion on this list is absolutely justified. ST: DAVID WINTERS - Many an Ayr fan would probably chuck Farid El Alagui in here, but I would disagree entirely. Farid arrived in January of 2017 and scored 3 goals in 11 games in the Championship, in a team that were struggling badly. David Winters, on the other hand, only managed one more goal than El Alagui despite making 30 appearances for the club, and at a lower level as well. A jobber who belonged in the Juniors, and that is exactly where he headed after leaving (via 1 appearance for Queen's Park). Honourable mentions to Jonathan 'On the Register' Tiffoney, Austin McCann, Gordon Pope and all the other utterly useless donkeys that have contributed to a decade which featured two relegations and coming within a bawhair of League Two status.

Moldova.

With only a 28% win rate at SV Sandhausen, I'm not sure what he has done to merit a job at a significantly bigger club with much larger expectations.

In terms of being 'robbed', the Czech Republic game at Hampden where they were awarded a penalty for an absolutely obscene dive was far worse than anything that occured in the Italy game.

Take it you mean this one? It's an excellent book, so much more sad given that it was written by one of his close friends.

Nope, not since the 70s! We have a good team this year that play some incredible football at times, but a very small squad and unfortunately we are up against a Dundee United side that are willing to spend whatever it takes to get promoted. i would take a Promotion Playoff spot like last year but don't think we have enough to get over the line.

A lot of people say that it's a shame he never built one for us but to be honest, given that there is now no requirement for an all seater stadium to be allowed into the top division, I am glad he didn't. Somerset may be a toilet, but it is at least an atmospheric toilet.

So promotion for his much beloved Aberdeen resort then? Probably more likely to be a desperate attempt by Aberdeen FC to acquire themselves a celebrity fan.

Absolutely, those at the top level during that period have a lot to answer for. It's sad to see crowds of only 700-800 turning up now at a 10,000 capacity stadium, you are still paying for those people's mistakes now in that respect. As an aside, when I heard about Bill Barr's death this morning, I looked back at news reports from that time and was reading about the day a section of Airdrie fans invaded the pitch at Somerset. The reports stated that the away following that day was around 800.

Nah it's an Aberdeen shirt. The shirt is from about 8 seasons ago I believe.

Well, actually...

Understand Airdrie's gripe with Bill Barr but the root cause of that whole episode was whatever nugget decided that you needed a 10,000 (TEN THOUSAND) seater stadium to have any chance of entry to the promised land of the SPL. Absolutely mind-blowing stupidity.