The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[diege]

I tweeted raging walking down McCall's avenue for the train tonight, but then realised, we're seriously punching above our weight

Outwith our best starting 11 we are slim

For every Akinyemi, Dempsey, McInroy, Adeloye we get a Bangala, Gondoh, JML, Young

We've got ourselve in a position of being safe, which in itself is a massive step forward from Kerr & Hopkin where we were struggling

I'll always have hope, but any talk of promotion is delusional. Making the playoffs is an achievement

Need to try move some certain players on in January if possible and get ourselves some reinforcements in defence

I've been worried Mullin will disappear, and Chalmers is our most creative players, we need to keep a hold of both.

Cappielow next, big game

 

[UpInTheAyr]

I'm surprised how the club could look at someone that out of shape and carrying that much extra timber and go yeah we'll sign him. Must have been desperate at the time. 

Wonder what other goodies the club will have for us this January. Nothing like a a disastrous result/performance to cause a panic buy. 

[Thereisalight..]

The last week has felt very reminiscent of the last time we were at top in Dec. Sure we were a couple up against Ross County and contrived to draw 3-3 (iirc). Wheels came off after that and although we made the play offs we never looked like going beyond the "first round". Hope this isnt deja vu

Edited December 24, 2022 by Thereisalight..

[UpInTheAyr]

7 minutes ago, diege said:

I tweeted raging walking down McCall's avenue for the train tonight, but then realised, we're seriously punching above our weight

Outwith our best starting 11 we are slim

For every Akinyemi, Dempsey, McInroy, Adeloye we get a Bangala, Gondoh, JML, Young

We've got ourselve in a position of being safe, which in itself is a massive step forward from Kerr & Hopkin where we were struggling

I'll always have hope, but any talk of promotion is delusional. Making the playoffs is an achievement

Need to try move some certain players on in January if possible and get ourselves some reinforcements in defence

I've been worried Mullin will disappear, and Chalmers is our most creative players, we need to keep a hold of both.

Cappielow next, big game

 

We need to up our ratio of at least half decent signings, club our size can't afford to be signing as many duds as we do

[diege]

Just now, UpInTheAyr said:

We need to up our ratio of at least half decent signings, club our size can't afford to be signing as many duds as we do

I think its the nature of the level that we're at

We need to take risks. nothing is a given unless we have the funds to sign established players, even thats a risk

I like our workings, but we need to adapt quickly when it doesnt work out, as we'll make some bum moves

January will be interesting

[UpInTheAyr]

6 minutes ago, diege said:

I think its the nature of the level that we're at

We need to take risks. nothing is a given unless we have the funds to sign established players, even thats a risk

I like our workings, but we need to adapt quickly when it doesnt work out, as we'll make some bum moves

January will be interesting

I wonder how bad Gondoh must have been if Bangala could manage more game time than him. 

If we have to pay him off at the end of the season like we did with Gondoh that's just seems crazy 

[1nickydevlin]

That was our heaviest defeat of the season last night.

[Trogdor]

What's really frustrating from last night is not controlling the game against 10 men. We never looked in control tbh. With the extra man we should be able to retain possession much easier. A draw wouldn't have been a disaster given our injuries. Instead we start chopping Dundee players down all over the pitch. What even was that? Panic? Heads gone?

Diege is right that we are exceeding expectations. With a cool head we are still well placed. I think winning the league is now a pipe dream. Top 4 would be a big achievement. 

One final thought - I feel for Eccrepont. What must he be thinking when Bullen plays Bangala ahead of him? 

 

[yorkshirepud]

Defence is a huge worry as we have seriously run out of players, if we assume Musonda and Kirk are out for a while yet. I think our hand has been forced and we need at least one other central defender for January 1st to at least allow us to move McAllister across to right back. 

Within 3 games we could go from league leaders to out of the play-offs. We need something from the Morton game but I can't see how we get it as we have stopped creating chances while also defending like idiots. That's a pretty toxic combination. 

 

 

[yorkshirepud]

7 minutes ago, Trogdor said:

 

One final thought - I feel for Eccrepont. What must he be thinking when Bullen plays Bangala ahead of him? 

 

Ecrepont was apparently unwell through the week so maybe felt he wasn't fit enough to start. Should certainly have flung him on when Bangala was booked though as a half-fit Ecrepont would have been better than what came next. Could maybe switch him and Reading at Cappielow, see how he gets on in his natural position?

[D'Jaffo]

50 minutes ago, 1nickydevlin said:

That was our heaviest defeat of the season last night.

Which in itself shows you how much of an overreaction there has been to the result. We didn’t play well at all but I wish folk would stop acting like it’s a given that you win games when you have an extra man. Anyone who’s actually been watching us this season should’ve known that the game was never going to become easier for us when Mulligan got sent off. We don’t really have the players at our disposal to break teams down when they camp in. Had Mullin or O’Connor been fit, it may have been different but we looked solely reliant on Chalmers doing a bit of magic for a goal and Dundee managed him superbly for the most part. 
 

I’ll go out on a limb and say we’re not going down. That in itself is a considerable improvement on anything we’ve seen since McCall left and after the league cup this season it’s something that I didn’t expect this early on. The target now is getting into the playoffs. Partick are bouncing back, Queens Park are still motoring on and Dundee look like they could put a bit of distance between themselves and the rest of us over the next few weeks. Morton are going to be interesting as they have a small squad and are in the same position as us in terms of punching above our weight a wee bit. 
 

I think for January it’d be nice to get a couple of bodies in and maybe get a couple of bodies out. We’re doing okay for squad size but it’s the overall quality outside of the starting eleven that’s the issue. Loaning Bryden out and maybe even offloading one of McAllister or Bangala. Signing a full back/centre half and an attacking midfielder would be the priority for me. Securing Mullin permanently is also something we have to look to do but I can actually see us losing Chalmers back to Dundee United. I don’t see us spiralling ala McCalls teams as I don’t think Bullen is as stubborn as he is. He’ll change things if he’s not happy rather than stick with his favourites. The issue is that it’s hard for us to rotate and be better off for it. 

[Trogdor]

I wouldn't rule out Morton making some moves in January given their upcoming payday versus Celtic in the Cup.

I think the response has been tempered on here tbh. Most if not all of us would have taken a draw before a ball was kicked. Even at 11 v 10 I'd have taken a draw because we were so decimated by injuries. Suspensions will be a worry now as well! The irony was Murdoch and Dempsey weren't amongst the yellow cards, which given we had 6 yellows and 1 red is a bit random.

[1nickydevlin]

41 minutes ago, Trogdor said:

What's really frustrating from last night is not controlling the game against 10 men. We never looked in control tbh. With the extra man we should be able to retain possession much easier. A draw wouldn't have been a disaster given our injuries. Instead we start chopping Dundee players down all over the pitch. What even was that? Panic? Heads gone?

Diege is right that we are exceeding expectations. With a cool head we are still well placed. I think winning the league is now a pipe dream. Top 4 would be a big achievement. 

One final thought - I feel for Eccrepont. What must he be thinking when Bullen plays Bangala ahead of him? 

 

He was ill all week .lost half a stone in weight .

[Nelson]

Queens Park are playing the sort of football we were in McCall’s last season in charge.  The common denominator is Sandy Stewart.  I’m not going to revisit the debate about whether we should have appointed him manager (though I was surprised at the time that we didn’t), but he does seem to be a top notch football coach.  

[Nelson]

 

[AYRSHIRE_ANGUS]

Another wee Beast from the East needed by the sounds of it. 

[AUcal]

Aye we were never going to control the game last night, we never control games.

Pretty sure we have amongst the lowest possession stats in the league but amongst the highest chances created / dangerous attacks. Which shows how we tend to play.

Dundee going a man down wasn't going to change how we play, as it has been pretty successful so far. Although it was disappointing to see us look so bereft of ideas on the pitch. Top four has to still be the target for us, and I think we're very capable of. In reality, no-one was expecting before the season.

[No_Problemo]

This is what I think we need, I’m very aware that we won’t get all of this - in order of priority:

Full back: If Houston is injured long term then a RB is an absolute essential priority. If he is back soon then it has to be a LB. Houston has been miles in front of Reading this season - though ideally you are replacing both. 

CM: We can’t run with only Murdoch and Dempsey in there. 

ACM OR ST (I would like to see us be able to control games a little better at times, but if Bullen wants to continue with two up front then it would be a second striker signing as opposed to an attacking central midfielder)

CB: Again depending on the injuries of Kirk and Musonda. 

After being happy with McKenzie’s progress and wanting him to regain the second striker slot I have been really disappointed with his last two performances. Brad Young has fallen off a cliff performance wise, absolutely hoaching last night. 

It would be good to get Bryden on loan to league two and Smith to league one - they need more than odd minutes and it’ll show us what they really have about them getting regular game time. If we want to make room in the budget it would be one of Ashford or Young to go as we have plenty in those positions. Of course, Bangala too - I would hope he isn’t being paid very much. 

To be fair to him, McAllister at only 21 has shown there is some potential there as a centre half. 

 

[itzdrk]

2 hours ago, Nelson said:

 

I was going to that match so I can thank bald gillet man for saving me some cash if we are just gonna hit up loserball again.  

[UpInTheAyr]

Sure McCall used the exact same "square pegs round holes..." line at one point around Xmas time.

Pretty ominous, this could just be the start of a slippy period for the team.

Doesn't help that none of the other teams seem to be letting up any.