The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[AyrAtlanta]

The Amartey sub btw can only be explained as something that would look good on paper. Take your pacy dribble-first winger off for one that will dig in and is more likely to hold onto the ball.

Makes sense until you watched the game for about 30 seconds and saw that the guy getting us up the park the most was that same pacy dribble-first winger. We were under a lot of pressure for about a 5 minute period before Amartey won the ball got past 3 or 4 and just ran. Move finished with a Chalmers goal.

If something is working you don’t change it. It really is that simple.

[D'Jaffo]

We showed tonight that there’s enough to build on with this squad. Two or three in the right areas and we will comfortably be away from the bottom two imo. 
 

Sickening to lose a late equaliser but we gave a good account of ourselves and I don’t think it was the subs that cost us tonight. Raith have been doing this to teams all seasons and we were down to ten men. Dowds and Chalmers were blowing out their arse but we don’t have anyone on the bench who can do an adequate enough job of replacing them in a like for like switch. It’s clear where we need to recruit next month so I hope we can do something positive in that regard. 

[yorkshirepud]

Amartey, Chalmers and Dowds were magnificent last night, especially 2nd half when they combined well to drag us up the park. I have no idea why they were taken off as Raith couldn't cope with them and it is worrying that everyone could see this except Bullen. Those subs looked looked like subs for the sake of just making subs rather than seeing what was happening in the game. Big up to McGeady as well for his goal. He hadn't done much up until that point but it was a well taken goal. To be fair, the first 3 goals were all tremendous. The 4th was just hilariously bad goalkeeping. 

At the other end, we have been chuntering on for months about the full backs but last night the problem was piss poor defending from the centre halves. The tracking and marking at the first, second and fourth goals was appalling. 

No complaints about the red or penalty. We now have a huge problem at the back unless Stanger is fit. Love him or loathe him, McGinty his played well this season and has looked the most accomplished defender we have, so not sure how we replace him for the next few games. Seen a few posts saying we should appeal it but IMHO it would be a waste of money as he caught Easton about knee high, with his studs. 

 

[Iain]

5 hours ago, D'Jaffo said:

We showed tonight that there’s enough to build on with this squad. Two or three in the right areas and we will comfortably be away from the bottom two imo. 
 

Sickening to lose a late equaliser but we gave a good account of ourselves and I don’t think it was the subs that cost us tonight. Raith have been doing this to teams all seasons and we were down to ten men. Dowds and Chalmers were blowing out their arse but we don’t have anyone on the bench who can do an adequate enough job of replacing them in a like for like switch. It’s clear where we need to recruit next month so I hope we can do something positive in that regard. 

Dowds and Chalmers would need to be literally on their knees crawling before Bryden and Rose would make sensible replacements. The Amartey sub was the one that changed the game in Raith's favour though. They were able to commit more men forward and take more chances without the threat of his strength and pace if they turned the ball over.

Edited December 23, 2023 by Iain

[Richey Edwards]

Biggest takeaway from last night is that Amartey MUST start. Absolutely criminal that he has had so little game time.

[Trogdor]

12 minutes ago, Richey Edwards said:

Biggest takeaway from last night is that Amartey MUST start. Absolutely criminal that he has had so little game time.

Hopefully he's forced himself into the team. You just don't know with BGM.

[railwayend]

5 hours ago, D'Jaffo said:

Sickening to lose a late equaliser but we gave a good account of ourselves and I don’t think it was the subs that cost us tonight. Raith have been doing this to teams all seasons and we were down to ten men. Dowds and Chalmers were blowing out their arse but we don’t have anyone on the bench who can do an adequate enough job of replacing them in a like for like switch. It’s clear where we need to recruit next month so I hope we can do something positive in that regard. 

It is impossible in the modern game to finish a game with your starting 11. This is where one of our problems lie , we have a lot of L1 on the bench. 
 

We must get a deal done with Dowds in the window , however his conditioning is something that you would want to work on in the summer . Logan is just rusty after a lay off , his goal last night was a thing of beauty. Be an interesting window, do we patch up or put in building blocks for next season. 

[railwayend]

Just now, Trogdor said:

Hopefully he's forced himself into the team. You just don't know with BGM.

I think he’ll get his chance now , no need to rush Jamie back . 

[Iain]

Watching the highlights this morning, I thought for the fourth goal that Vaughan was probably Musonda's responsibility. Senga is closest when the header is made, but he's marking another player and only comes off him at the last moment when he sees the scorer has found space. Tough one to give up.

[railwayend]

Just now, Iain said:

Watching the highlights this morning, I thought for the fourth goal that Vaughan was probably Musonda's responsibility. Senga is closest when the header is made, but he's marking another player and only comes off him at the last moment when he sees the scorer has found space. Tough one to give up.

The defence would be my priority in the window . A leader/organiser is a must . Wouldn’t be against 5 at the back with a sweeper . A sweeper kills Raith’s first goal . However you have to sacrifice something further up to park to go with a five . 

[Iain]

Just now, railwayend said:

The defence would be my priority in the window . A leader/organiser is a must . Wouldn’t be against 5 at the back with a sweeper . A sweeper kills Raith’s first goal . However you have to sacrifice something further up to park to go with a five . 

For me the ideal is if you had a guy in the position McGeady played who could drop back into a midfield 3 when out of possession, allowing one of the other two to sit deeper until we win it back.

[Trogdor]

16 minutes ago, Iain said:

Watching the highlights this morning, I thought for the fourth goal that Vaughan was probably Musonda's responsibility. Senga is closest when the header is made, but he's marking another player and only comes off him at the last moment when he sees the scorer has found space. Tough one to give up.

Mutch sells the jersey for the fourth. I have no idea why he's on the edge of the six yard box. Totally mystifying. We've certainly fucked up defensively as there are more Raith players than Ayr defenders in the box.

Edited December 23, 2023 by Trogdor

[ComradeDiego]

Thought we were excellent last night overall. Getting Chalmers signed on is absolutely crucial.

Definite red for big Sean and definitely a penalty towards the end for Raith.

Gutted we couldn’t see out the win but I’d have taken a point before kickoff 

 

[Finlay21]

7 hours ago, AyrAtlanta said:

Just want to add about the ladies from the shop that they had brought a few selection boxes with them and started handing them out to any weans that were there at full time. A real credit to the club.

Think we should  also be congratulating Raith Rovers here , great gesture by them as it was them that provided the selection boxes to be distributed to young fans , 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Finlay21

[Trogdor]

2 minutes ago, Finlay21 said:

Think we should be congratulating Raith Rovers here , great gesture by them as it was them that provided the selection boxes to be distributed to young fans , 

Fair play to Rovers. Definitely a club on the up on and off the pitch. 

[McGuigan1978]

Even by our standards last night, that was a very weird game. It felt very much like last season's Raith Rovers team, no control, error strewn and Ian Murray going into panic mode about 20 minutes too early. By all means go for it, but I'm not sure we needed to be so cavalier with 30 minutes remaining. 

That said, we had some apocalyptically bad performances from some players, and if any one of them had even an average game, we'd maybe have won. Liam Dick, Scott Brown and Kevin Dabrowski were disastrous, admittedly I wouldn't have popped up in Kevin's Twitter notifications to tell him as it's a bit weird, but nevertheless, he was directly at fault for goals one and four. The first was in the "should be doing much better there" category, but the fourth? My goodness. 

I was a bit worried when I saw Franny Amartey was in the starting line up, but was hoping he was one of those players who get better in the eyes of fans when he's not playing, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Quick, skilful and bullying opponents left, right and centre. If that's what he's capable of week in, week out, then not picking him is very strange. I was delighted when Lee Bullen took him off, as frankly it didn't make a lick of sense, and it was very much to our benefit, so thanks Lee!

There were positives of course. Lewis Vaughan's hat-trick was great to see, and both his headers were excellent. I suspect that as much as I compared it to last season, the 2022/23 Raith vintage would have lost that comfortably, and Dundee United had another lamentable performance so didn't gain any ground on us, but that really needs to be a blip if we're to challenge for first place. 

Yes, it may have been frustrating, but it was also a good laugh, and you can't say fairer than that. 

 

[edinburghhonestman]

Definitely think another centre half in the window would be an idea. If we lose Musonda to AFCON we're always an injury away from a crisis. 

[Trogdor]

24 minutes ago, edinburghhonestman said:

Definitely think another centre half in the window would be an idea. If we lose Musonda to AFCON we're always an injury away from a crisis. 

We'll know for certain on the 3rd of January. I didn't realise Avram Grant was Zambia Manager. Musonda made the 55-man provisional squad. 

https://en.africatopsports.com/2023/12/14/zambias-avram-grant-names-55-man-provisional-squad/

[Rb123]

Who was that bunch of imposters playing in the final third last night that turned into prime Barcelona 

Shame the same can't be said of our defence... our captain probably having the worse 43 minutes of his career. As much use as a traffic cone for Sam Stanton to run round for his 1st goal, should have conceded a penalty and then I don't even know what he's trying to do at the red card. 

We also seem to have managed to do an Arsenal and end up with two goalkeepers of similar level and we don't know which one should be No 1...

Anyway back to Somerset so normal service will resume with an eyebleedingly bad snoozefest.

Don't really know whether last night was the turning point for Bullen and our season or it was just one of these freak matches 

[Roxanne's man]

7 hours ago, AyrAtlanta said:

They were definitely on something. Breathed a sigh of relief when they didn’t come back for the second half. They were standing in a garden across the road shouting abuse at the away support again in the second half and were laughed down.

Just want to add about the ladies from the shop that they had brought a few selection boxes with them and started handing them out to any weans that were there at full time. A real credit to the club.

This is what it's about. These ladies are brilliant.