The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[HMIP]

8 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

Some of our fans clearly have a problem with Tomi, as soon as he was on the park and didn’t create something with his every touch the shouting started. He had three very good moments (glorious bit of play to set up Ashford, and creating space to get his header away that hit the bar in particular) but you can’t expect him to bail you out every time off the bench. 

Im not going to speculate about why he is targeted, but it certainly isn’t a good look for those doing it. 

Some of the past criticism around his attitude and work rate was fair, but he was an instant improvement on what we endured for over an hour before he came on.  I was genuinely staggered to hear folk getting on his back within seconds of him coming on the park.  I tend to doubt it’s about racism - more a moronic herd mentality that can’t differentiate legitimate criticism and pure scapegoatery.  

Edited February 26, 2022 by HMIP

[No_Problemo]

Just now, HMIP said:

Some of the past criticism around his attitude and work rate was fair, but he was an instant improvement on what we endured for over an hour before he came on.  I was genuinely staggered to hear folk getting on his back within seconds of him coming on the park.  I tend to doubt it’s about racism - more a moronic herd mentality that can’t differentiate legitimate criticism and pure scapegoatery.  

It’s definitely interesting that they can watch McKenzie, Maxwell and Houston putting in absolutely horrific performances without a word and then scream at Adeloye the second he is on the park. I think (and hope) you are most likely right though. 

Willie Gibson embarrassed Houston and McKenzie today. 

[HMIP]

6 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

It’s definitely interesting that they can watch McKenzie, Maxwell and Houston putting in absolutely horrific performances without a word and then scream at Adeloye the second he is on the park. I think (and hope) you are most likely right though. 

Willie Gibson embarrassed Houston and McKenzie today. 

The obvious comparison is with McGinty.  It’s true he was an absolute liability under Hopkin and Duffy, but he has barely put a foot wrong of late.  And yet still today the moans and groans were never far away.  In the end, for all we had 2 great away results there, the dross served up to the home support under Hopkin, Duffy and now Bullen has been completely abject all season.  The supporters just seemed to be in the grip of total frustration today at the way we approached the game and the usual scapegoats got it in the neck.

[UpInTheAyr]

Gibson beat Houston in a sprint to the ball late in the game, which isn't really on tbh.

Today just felt so needless and avoidable, more shooting ourselves in the face rather than the foot.

[Hursty]

13 minutes ago, HMIP said:

I tend to doubt it’s about racism -

I'm genuinely not sure, depressing as that is. 

If he looked like Innes Cameron (best example I can think of as similar size striker but white) would he get the same abuse?   I genuinely don't think so.   Impossible to ever prove though unless someone actually says something which obviously doesn't happen.  

[Trogdor]

Fucking grim, utterly grim. That starting eleven was ridiculously cautious and negative in a home game against the team at the bottom of the league. We barely competed today that was a terrible performance and result. A few players needing dropped. Bullen needs to learn fast, he's far too rigid with his tactics. We missed Murdoch massively but we need a plan B when 4-5-1 ain't the option. It works when we are the underdog but when we are the favourite it's too conservative.

[UpInTheAyr]

We've always picked a player to rag on for no particular reason, Crawford comes to mind, Gilmour too to an extent, although he was shite tbf. Not discounting there could be an element of the other thing though.

[Trogdor]

30 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

Some of our fans clearly have a problem with Tomi, as soon as he was on the park and didn’t create something with his every touch the shouting started. He had three very good moments (glorious bit of play to set up Ashford, and creating space to get his header away that hit the bar in particular) but you can’t expect him to bail you out every time off the bench. 

Im not going to speculate about why he is targeted, but it certainly isn’t a good look for those doing it. 

The treatment Tomi gets by sections of our support is ridiculous. AUMedia's character assassination didn't help either. A false narrative has been created, he is comfortably our best player.

He should be starting. I find it baffling that he isn't - you don't tend to win football matches by keeping your best players on the bench.

[No_Problemo]

6 minutes ago, Trogdor said:

The treatment Tomi gets by sections of our support is ridiculous. AUMedia's character assassination didn't help either. A false narrative has been created, he is comfortably our best player.

He should be starting. I find it baffling that he isn't - you don't tend to win football matches by keeping your best players on the bench.

I don’t even think it’s debatable now, that he should be starting. Tomi has contributed more in that position in three cameos, than Ashford has starting in those games.  It has been mentioned numerous times, but Ashford absolutely needs to be tried in McKenzie’s position (if Murdoch is back) I’m going to be raging when he still isn’t starting next week. 

Edited February 26, 2022 by No_Problemo

[AyrExile]

1 hour ago, HMIP said:

That was an absolute shitshow from Lee Bullen.  Terrible formation, terrible tactics.  

I accept we dug out a couple of great results away from home playing a certain way, but setting up like that at home is an absolute disgrace.   So similar to the Morton game 3-4 weeks back where our only tactic was to not lose a goal, then looked utterly lost when we did.  Absolutely no attempt to get on the front foot, press up the park, commit men into the box or show anything that might resemble an ambition to go and win the game.   Can anyone explain what McKenzie actually does?  As best I can see, he does nothing more than occupy a 10 yard square box in front of Houston.  We at least carried a threat when Adeloye came on and went 2 up front, though try telling that to some of the rockets on the North Terracing.  And playing Muirhead as a midfield lynchpin simply doesn’t work - we’ve proved that to the point of destruction and far, far beyond.

That's 3 different managers that have set up like this though. Two rightly got moved on and can't defend their record. Can't say i've seen too many managers that like to be as cautious. The odds seem very low to have three on the spin so perhaps they feel we don't have the balance to play a different formation

[Hursty]

17 minutes ago, UpInTheAyr said:

We've always picked a player to rag on for no particular reason, Crawford comes to mind, Gilmour too to an extent, although he was shite tbf. Not discounting there could be an element of the other thing though.

That's true - I don't recall it ever happening to a top goalscorer though who also makes big impacts off the bench.   

It's usually been a midfielder who folk don't think is hard enough- Crawford, Gilmour as you say say Chris Aitken springs to mind.  

[HMIP]

9 minutes ago, AyrExile said:

That's 3 different managers that have set up like this though. Two rightly got moved on and can't defend their record. Can't say i've seen too many managers that like to be as cautious. The odds seem very low to have three on the spin so perhaps they feel we don't have the balance to play a different formation

If that’s true, we’re getting relegated.  Simple as that.

[HMIP]

5 minutes ago, Hursty said:

That's true - I don't recall it ever happening to a top goalscorer though who also makes big impacts off the bench.   

It's usually been a midfielder who folk don't think is hard enough- Crawford, Gilmour as you say say Chris Aitken springs to mind.  

Eddie Annand wasn’t particularly liked by a lot of the support. Scored a decent number of goals but he was a lazy big b*****d at times.

[AyrExile]

7 minutes ago, HMIP said:

If that’s true, we’re getting relegated.  Simple as that.

Not quite as straight forward in this league particularly after our recent two wins. Disaster of a result today yet only lose one point to all other teams. 

[Oceanlineayr]

Well that was a terrible performance all round.

Maxwell had a stinker, Muirhead is not a midfielder and Ashford at times looked completely cut off from the rest of the team.

Did wonder at first if McAdams could have done a bit better at their goal but I'll fully admit that my view of the goal was not the best.

Today was a massive game and we didn't turn up.

 

[rgreig]

25 minutes ago, Trogdor said:

The treatment Tomi gets by sections of our support is ridiculous. AUMedia's character assassination didn't help either. A false narrative has been created, he is comfortably our best player.

He should be starting. I find it baffling that he isn't - you don't tend to win football matches by keeping your best players on the bench.

Irrespective of what anyone thinks of Adeloye, it's very clear that Ashford is having very little impact up front on his own in terms of shots. I am struggling to think of a single shot he had on target up in Inverness and it was the same again today. Adeloye definitely created more opportunities and shots and it was just frustrating that Bullen took so long to make any changes when it was clear it was not working. The biggest issue in my opinion is that we are so narrow and Bullen needs to change the starting eleven to address that.

I presume that Murdoch has tested positive for Covid so I hope that he will be back next week.

I thought McGinty did well again today, he is one player who has really improved in recent weeks and I never thought I would be saying that.

[Trogdor]

30 minutes ago, rgreig said:

I thought McGinty did well again today, he is one player who has really improved in recent weeks and I never thought I would be saying that.

Agree with everything you said on Adeloye & Ashford.

Aye, he's making me eat my words at the moment. He was definitely better than Baird today. Baird was partially culpable for the first when conceding a throw in when he had other options. Don't get me wrong we should have defended it better and not allowed their goalscorer so much time and space to shoot.

35 minutes ago, Oceanlineayr said:

Did wonder at first if McAdams could have done a bit better at their goal but I'll fully admit that my view of the goal was not the best.

I thought the same. I didn't have a good angle from the North terrace though so could be totally unfair if he's unsighted or bodies in the way.

[Rodders1910]

Houston is no where near good enough for this level

[Hursty]

Positives I'd take from today, McGinty played well as folk have said, plus Reading had a decent game.   No idea why we kept going down a very crowded and limited right hand side 2nd half.   Was the first time I've seen Gondoh live and he looked OK, looks to have a good touch.  McInroy and Dempsey weren't bad either but today probably shows how unbelievably important Andy Murdoch is.   

[Trogdor]

25 minutes ago, Rodders1910 said:

Houston is no where near good enough for this level

Agreed. Rowe should be starting games, he offers much more going forward and isn't any worse defensively.