AUcal

I think everyone knows and is excited about the plans, it's just more the idea that I won't be able to go there at all next season. I love watching the games there so I want to go and enjoy it for the last time for a while.

Personally a big fan of The Smokin Goat on the Sandgate.

Moving away from part time football worked very well for Ayr after our relegation in 2016/2017. We went full time that summer and it was the catalyst for the club finally winning the division (instead of yo-yoing via the play offs) and going on to have the current sustained period of time in the 2nd tier. A hybrid model could work in a similar fashion for Cove, certainly seems to have been beneficial for Airdrie recently. The main difference however (at the risky of sounding crowd wanky) was that Ayr had a decent support for L1 level, which made going full time a more realistic prospect in the long run - as long as we got it correct enough on the pitch. Along with Raith (who were already full time) we probably would have been expected to challenge anyway even without the full-time move. It's certainly a bold approach, but I'm not sure on the long term feasibility of it with crowd numbers etc. Cove seem to have plateaued somewhat and my concern would be that the club would probably have to be promoted again in the next season or two for it to be viable to remain hybrid / full time beyond that. Over to Hartley to build a good team I guess .... We can send Bangala back if you'd like?

Paul Hartley in his infinite wisdom thought it would be a good idea to take Bangala to Cove. Hopefully we've already been offering him Reading.

Deary me. Those Arbroath tops are not good. The away one in particular looks awful.

Really sad to see Albion drop out. Wasn't too long ago they won the division if I remember correctly. Hopefully see them back in the not too distant future. Good luck to Spartans.

Can only assume anyone suggesting Zanatta for yous is on the wind up. Couldn't even get in Hamilton's starting line up for most of the season. Joe Chalmers levels of useless shitebag. Albeit, I hear agent Chalmers was decent in L1 after his calamitous contribution to your relegation.

Aye, an English colleague of mine was talking about how he knew Frankie when he was wee as he played with his son at kids football. Was surprised to see him on the Tele when he tuned in to watch our embarrassing performance away at Falkirk. When he heard the song about how "He comes from Zambia", he had the same reaction of saying, "Eh what? He's from Bedford".

Jet fuel doesn't melt Ayr teams Why are they really redeveloping the north terrace huh? These are the real questions. #conspiracy

Hmm, far too much sense here.

They're back with the big boys. Hopefully they get flushed straight back down. Wonder if the Britain First / National Front / EDL lads made it up to their big play off game.

Tbh, I wouldn't read much into that 2nd place finish other than to say Akinyemi is a very very good player. If it wasn't for him, our squad would have been absolutely miles away from the top 4, let alone 2nd. The very best this squad could have hoped for without him was the no mans land that Raith occupied - more than likely we would have been in relegation danger. That's not to say that you lot shouldn't fancy your chances of top 4 (I would probably expect to see your squad with some additions in and around the play-offs) just that our second place finish is wildly skewed by one unusually good player for the level, so I wouldn't necessarily use it as a marker. Looking forward to returning to EEP next season. Congrats on playing your part in keeping Falkirk down. Couple more seasons and they'll eclipse Ayr's longest spell down there in recent decades, which would be a truly remarkable* achievement for the bairns. *Embarrassing.

I'm still raging about Maguire completely wasting a great attacking opportunity immediately before the Partick 2nd.

I'd hope Partick can sort the tickets better for their home leg in the final, especially if it's against Kilmarnock or Dundee United who will likely sell it out as well. No allocated seats for a 2000+ sell out in that stand was a bit chaotic. Apparently also plenty folk that bought home end tickets and had no trouble at all at the gates getting in the Colin Weir. All felt a wee bit messy. Other than that, I really enjoyed the atmosphere at the game last night (for the build up and first 15 minutes anyway). Crowd was a great advert for the level.

There was a couple of guys near me screaming at McGinty all night for f**k all. I can't understand it, he was one of the few with pass marks. He's a championship centre half and I thought he did everything you would expect a championship CB to do perfectly well - as he has most of the season. The number of balls into the box we concede and the number of times an opponent is able to reach the byline is a mess. Fullbacks just aren't good enough. Going forward we looked slow and pretty clueless at times. We just looked so aimless without dipo. Hopefully we get a good showing next week. Can't see us turning it around obviously, but the team deserve a good crowd to see them off. Also, last chance to be on the old North Terrace.

^ Bullen in his post match interview.

Don't want to see Hewitt playing full back again either. Atrocious.

And it's done.

The f**k has happened to the 'sold out' stand behind the goal

Genuinely incredible that a team with our fullbacks finished 2nd.

Tbf McKenzie has actually done relatively well, considering. We've had chances (ish). Partick haven't been anything special. Need to see this through. Concede a couple more goals and it's done.

Aye, for opposing fans it probably is. Would be loving it if it was the other way round. Likely won't make much of a difference to Partick's game plan but can only hope that your lot have been training with the Dipo factor in mind. Having said that. I'm not confident anything else we have is capable of causing anywhere near the same level of problems. Mon the fucking McKenzie.

Club have known most of the week apparently. Did well to keep it mostly under wraps till now.

I don't even like football anyway