The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[No_Problemo]

2 minutes ago, AUFC 1910 said:

Last night, without Dipo, I felt the only chance we had was to overload the midfield and defence and be aggressive in every confrontation.

We went toe-to-toe with a better team.

Partick we’re too strong, too quick and too clever.

Aye, it was utterly wild - two proper wide players and two strikers (one of whom is  immobile) in a first leg without your main goal scorer is hilariously inept management. 

[BukyOHare]

4 minutes ago, eez-eh said:

I think it’s understandable if Bullen didn’t fancy playing McKenzie or Maguire up front on their own.

I appreciate others see the game differently but McKenzie was so isolated at times that to my mind he was playing up front by himself.

To be fair to him holding up the ball back to goal has never been his game, that along with an ineffective midfield to link the play up saw us exposed in the wide areas too often when they got the ball and attacked us.

 

[Richey Edwards]

6 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

Aye, it was utterly wild - two proper wide players and two strikers (one of whom is  immobile) in a first leg without your main goal scorer is hilariously inept management. 

When did we sign him? I thought he played for Lazio.

[diegomarahenry]

9 minutes ago, eez-eh said:

I’m not making excuses for last night but I think it’s understandable if Bullen didn’t fancy playing McKenzie or Maguire up front on their own. Neither are lone strikers.

Having the extra man in midfield might have helped a bit but it doesn’t excuse how ineffective the midfield was.

Thats where you play Ashford rather than McKenzie. 

We are playing Thistle, 3 things you need to do, have someone get at Muirhead to get him rattled, he's a calamity when he is trying his hardest to get sent off. Have someone follow Graham about, man marking him. Finally, don't let them control the midfield.

We failed on all 3 last night. Thistle knew how to exploit our weaknesses and we naively blundered about trying to play our own game for 90 minutes despite it not working beyond the first 20.  

[eez-eh]

7 minutes ago, BukyOHare said:

I appreciate others see the game differently but McKenzie was so isolated at times that to my mind he was playing up front by himself.

To be fair to him holding up the ball back to goal has never been his game, that along with an ineffective midfield to link the play up saw us exposed in the wide areas too often when they got the ball and attacked us.

 

He was. But he would have been even more isolated if we’d put an extra man in midfield instead of Maguire, who was supposed to be a link to the midfield but didn’t do a very good job of it.

[GaryMc93]

38 minutes ago, AyrExile said:

The timing of Dipo not being available is all very odd. Has a bid or something come in for him? He has taken a battering on a weekly basis and not missed a game yet after a two week rest is unavailable.

According to Bullen it was a sickness bug that some players had picked up since the Inverness game, including Ashford who was only fit enough to be on the bench otherwise I'd imagine he'd have started.

Confusion seems to be it was reported as a back injury by the AP but I'll accept whatever version gets him back for Friday.

[BukyOHare]

5 minutes ago, eez-eh said:

He was. But he would have been even more isolated if we’d put an extra man in midfield instead of Maguire, who was supposed to be a link to the midfield but didn’t do a very good job of it.

I get you now, apologies. I actually think we started the game pretty well, we were playing through midfield and getting Maguire and Mullin on the ball.

For a number of reasons already discussed, we just fell out of the game the longer it went on. A late rally at the end should be kidding nobody on.

 

[Richey Edwards]

[BukyOHare]

Just now, Richey Edwards said:

It was bad. It wasn't THAT bad.

[AUFC 1910]

Apologies if this has been posted before, but this is sold out apparently!!!

[AUcal]

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

Edited May 20, 2023 by AuAl

[Trogdor]

15 minutes ago, GaryMc93 said:

According to Bullen it was a sickness bug that some players had picked up since the Inverness game, including Ashford who was only fit enough to be on the bench otherwise I'd imagine he'd have started.

Confusion seems to be it was reported as a back injury by the AP but I'll accept whatever version gets him back for Friday.

I would have been in favour of us treating it like an outbreak of mad cow disease and puting the squad members who caught it down in order to preserve Dipo.

[ryanayr1987]

I thought I would have mellowed a little after a nights sleep but no. That was horrific and bullen is tactically inept and team selection was strange with Hewitt starting was just completely wrong. Maguire isnt a footballer anymore he’s completely done, we’d have been better starting bryden than him. I think we need a rebuild and either a coach that can help Bullen tactically or a new manager

[eez-eh]

5 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

Thats where you play Ashford rather than McKenzie. 

We are playing Thistle, 3 things you need to do, have someone get at Muirhead to get him rattled, he's a calamity when he is trying his hardest to get sent off. Have someone follow Graham about, man marking him. Finally, don't let them control the midfield.

We failed on all 3 last night. Thistle knew how to exploit our weaknesses and we naively blundered about trying to play our own game for 90 minutes despite it not working beyond the first 20.  

I can only imagine the reaction on here if we’d gone with Ashford up front on his own to hold the ball up.

When we play 4-4-2 and it doesn’t work people say we’re too open and can’t control the game. When we play 4-5-1/4-3-3 and it doesn’t work people say we’re isolating the striker too much and point to our great early season form coming while we played 2 up front.

The above doesn’t excuse our tactical failings, but the flip-flopping from one week to another gets tedious (which I don’t mean as a dig towards anyone because I’ve done it as well) and it’s too simplistic to put it all down to a formation. Re-jigging the shape doesn’t suddenly make Paddy Reading a good Championship left-back or give Chris Maguire his legs back.

[D'Jaffo]

15 minutes ago, AuAl said:

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

That the wee floaty ball that he put in that was neither a shot nor a cross. 

[No_Problemo]

3 minutes ago, eez-eh said:

I can only imagine the reaction on here if we’d gone with Ashford up front on his own to hold the ball up.

When we play 4-4-2 and it doesn’t work people say we’re too open and can’t control the game. When we play 4-5-1/4-3-3 and it doesn’t work people say we’re isolating the striker too much and point to our great early season form coming while we played 2 up front.

The above doesn’t excuse our tactical failings, but the flip-flopping from one week to another gets tedious (which I don’t mean as a dig towards anyone because I’ve done it as well) and it’s too simplistic to put it all down to a formation. Re-jigging the shape doesn’t suddenly make Paddy Reading a good Championship left-back or give Chris Maguire his legs back.

At times you are probably correct, but last night isn’t one of those times. There’s only so many times you can watch the huge gaps in the middle of the park as Dempsey and Murdoch get dragged all over the place trying to help the full backs and not think they needed some help in there. 

Can the club just be honest about Dipo for Friday too please, even if he is there we have about a 1% chance, if he isn’t there is no point turning up. 

[BukyOHare]

1 minute ago, No_Problemo said:

Can the club just be honest about Dipo for Friday too please, even if he is there we have about a 1% chance, if he isn’t there is no point turning up. 

I've just seen the pre match press conferences and as a club produced item the two points I'd make if Dipo was 50/50 through the week would be:

Why did we even ask directly if Dipo was available for last night's game?

And if the interviewer was unaware of the situation why was Bullen's poker faced response not just edited out?

As has been mentioned the feeling of deflation among the support when news filtered out was noticeable. 

[No_Problemo]

1 minute ago, BukyOHare said:

I've just seen the pre match press conferences and as a club produced item the two points I'd make if Dipo was 50/50 through the week would be:

Why did we even ask directly if Dipo was available for last night's game?

And if the interviewer was unaware of the situation why was Bullen's poker faced response not just edited out?

As has been mentioned the feeling of deflation among the support when news filtered out was noticeable. 

Yeah - the direct question about Dipo was extremely odd. I don’t blame them for keeping it quiet for last night, but I want to know for Friday night so I can go in with zero hope as opposed to a tiny bit!

You are completely right, I got into the ground at around seven and didn’t realise until then - what a shit moment that was! 

[1nickydevlin]

3 minutes ago, BukyOHare said:

I've just seen the pre match press conferences and as a club produced item the two points I'd make if Dipo was 50/50 through the week would be:

Why did we even ask directly if Dipo was available for last night's game?

And if the interviewer was unaware of the situation why was Bullen's poker faced response not just edited out?

As has been mentioned the feeling of deflation among the support when news filtered out was noticeable. 

I heard at lunchtime he was injured . Ruined my lunch tbf

[Iain]

1 hour ago, ryanayr1987 said:

That was reading

It was McGinty who played the god awful clearance that made the first goal possible