Jeff Randall

Correct. While the challenge in itself probably wasn’t worthy of a caution, making a challenge like that, and not winning the ball, when on a booking from a honking referee, was asking for trouble.

There was a sort of inevitability about that today. Our form has been absolutely dreadful since just before Christmas, but now 1 win in 10 I think. It would have taken a brave person to have predicted a win for us pre-match. And so it came to pass. Then you see our top goalscorer and most creative influence sitting on the bench. Baffling. Clyde absolutely deserved their win, absolutely no doubting that. But my oh my, how far have we fallen off a cliff? They were woeful and it says a lot about us that we lost the game and without a whimper too. Any side in decent form or with a jot of confidence or grit about them would have sworded Clyde today, no doubt. The Bully Wee deserved the win, but we handed it to them on a plate with how passive we were. We were far too slow, pedestrian, scared, indecisive, the list goes on. It’s difficult to see where we go from here. 12 games left and 7 ahead of East Fife who won today. It’s yet another nosedive of a season and I fear we’re not done nosediving just yet.

I thought we deserved that albeit made hard work of it. We managed the second half well although gave Stranraer far too much freedom with the ball and sat off them after our third. We were sloppy in possession a lot I felt although had some good passages of play when we tried to get the ball forward. I thought Stranraer were garbage and anything other than a home win would’ve been a huge missed opportunity. I know they had injuries but they were really pretty awful. Durnan and Shiels were excellent, Pigniatello and Orsi worked well together at times but I thought we were quite wasteful going forward throughout. It’s a good three points and on to next week and what looks like an improving Clyde.

That was an odd sort of game. The only side trying to win it won it but we made heavy weather of it. We were the better team for most of it but we were far from our best. Findlay was excellent and I thought Blair Malcolm was up there too. The changes had the desired effect and a limited EF display couldn’t handle the effect they had. The ref’s presumed inexperience was taken advantage of by East Fife on a number of occasions and their disruption tactics nearly got them the point they came for. It was far from a classic but we just deserved the win and despite a couple of chances, you can see why the Fife have had a poor start and are struggling.

I took this in as a local neutral tonight and thought it was a decent enough contest. It’s hard to tell with pre-season games because you don’t know how strenuously sides go into them but I’d say it was a pretty even first half and then as the second half wore on, Ayr’s fitness and superiority showed. Ayr’s first goal was well-worked and if I’m honest I thought the floodgates might open after that but it never materialised like that. EK came into it as the half progressed and Nathan Flanagan was a good outlet. It never really happened for Akinyemi tonight for one reason or another, but I thought Fraser Bryden looked lively and linked play up well when he came on. Jamie Murphy took his goal well after a decent move from Ayr. East Kilbride had two or three good chances in the first 15 minutes or so of the second half and Ayr have their substitute goalkeeper to thank for their clean sheet in the end. It’s difficult to analyse having only seen Ayr two or three times on the TV last season and then tonight in person, but as an Ayr fan I’d maybe be a bit concerned at how often EK managed to get the ball across goal in the game with Paddy Reading in particular not having the most comfortable evening. EK didn’t capitalise on those several flashed-across balls but a more clinical side could have/will. Micky Hewitt did well when he came on I feel and was a good outlet for Ayr down the right. All in all a decent workout for both sides I’m sure, all the best for the season guys.