The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[Richey Edwards]

17 minutes ago, UpInTheAyr said:

McAllister has kicked on massively this season compared to last, although that wouldn't be particularly hard. Who's to say he can't do the same next season, to some extent again? 

Would definitely be signing him up. Houston and Reading I wouldn't be bothered if they left. 

Compared to last season he has been much improved. I did not rate him at all last season because he looked like he had won a competition to be part of our squad - though to be fair he was not the only one.

Glad to be proven wrong about him though. The loan spell he had seems to have done him some good.

[Shibuya]

42 minutes ago, Lochwood said:

 

Another thing that really annoyed me yesterday was a free kick with goal scoring chance and  Reading took it , neither Mullin or the boy Mclear  who has history as a bit of a specialist at free kicks went anywhere near it and shows how low there confidence is.  

Aye, what was that all about? I can't think of any time where i want Reading to hit a free kick over McAlear and Mullin. McAlear was actually shouting for the ball with his hand up, I was disappointed he didn't hit it given his reputation for free kicks. 

[Trogdor]

26 minutes ago, WATTOO said:

Once we all come back down to Earth, it should be noted that there's no way on earth Bullen's position will be under threat, nor should it be, given that we're in 3rd position in the league with still a slight cushion over those behind and have been occupying the top 4 positions all season. We're also in the last 8 (with a very winnable tie) of the major national cup competition and who knows where that could end.

Over and above this we've now got a few very sellable assets and also a few of our own Academy players blooded and very much part of a top half Championship squad, I'd also say we've added 200 - 300 on to our average home gates, as such from our Boards perspective, Bullen is doing a fantastic job and the players would all seem very happy, so despite a few of us being annoyed about recent results and performances, things are actually looking great for the club when taking in the bigger picture and taking account of the fact that we're probably 2 years ahead of our "plan".

I'm as annoyed and frustrated as anyone about our recent results and performances but ultimately we're still doing very well and I'd also fully expect us to bounce back sooner or later, whether it's enough to keep a title challenge going is open to debate but what isn't is that we've improved dramatically from last year and that's all that was expected of Bullen and the team.

In reality, history will show this as one of our best ever seasons and I think it's a measure of how far we've come that we're now all going berzerk about a few poor weeks when we look back and think about where we've been and the type of junior quality players and young scottish championship loanees that we had to rely on for our excitement in our recent past.

On the plus side, Musonda is just about back, McAlear is getting fitter, Daire is arguably looking as good as he ever has and hopefully Murdoch will also be back soon.

Anyway, each to their own but I've had enough doom and gloom and extreme negativity for this weekend.......

 

In reality, one of our best ever seasons? We've still got a third of it to play! Nothing has been achieved yet and on current form we're only heading one way. 

[rb123!]

13 minutes of highlights is quite impressive, quality is improving too, only took to February!

 

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Trogdor said:

In reality, one of our best ever seasons? We've still got a third of it to play! Nothing has been achieved yet and on current form we're only heading one way. 

In the 35 years that I've followed Ayr I think we've maybe had a 2nd tier potential title challenge about 3 to 4 times and the majority of the rest of the time has been spent at either bottom end 2nd tier or mid to top 3rd tier, so Yes, I'd say this has been a very successful season so far.

[North British 2]

1 hour ago, D'Jaffo said:

That’s not how football clubs operate though. The club have said they are going to work to a budget and that budget will be suitable for where the club are and what they want to achieve. The money from the cup run and league place will go towards next seasons budget. We did enough in terms of outgoings in January to be able to get another loan player in but there’s no way Smith will put more money in, in the hope that we can maybe get up. 

We are one game away from bagging £500k potentially.  We surely should adjust the plan slightly and get some quality leaders in that are hopefully not cup tied . 

[No_Problemo]

38 minutes ago, GaryMc93 said:

Mullin's confidence would have been sky high if he managed to score that free kick from the bench. Also McAlear was standing beside it but the angle probably suited a left footer and we don't have many.

It doesn’t really matter what angle it is, I was furious when Reading hit it - he can barely complete a five yard pass, never mind score a free kick! 

36 minutes ago, Iain said:

It's only a couple of weeks since McAllister was terrible against QP. Not being as bad as some of the others seems a low bar to clear to receive praise.

People have stated that he has improved  from last season, and is a decent squad option. I really don’t know what there is to take issue with in that! 

Nick McAllister of last season would have been utterly destroyed by Tiffoney. 

[eez-eh]

4 minutes ago, WATTOO said:

so Yes, I'd say this has been a very successful season so far.

This is not the same thing as the original, laughable, claim of “one of the best ever”.

[D'Jaffo]

7 minutes ago, North British 2 said:

We are one game away from bagging £500k potentially.  We surely should adjust the plan slightly and get some quality leaders in that are hopefully not cup tied . 

There aren’t any players like that though. Every team in the league has been speaking about these so called “leaders” and experienced players as if there’s a surplus of them. 
 

As I said we’re unlikely to alter anything if it means we have to find money from somewhere. We aren’t going to budget on the expectation we get into the semi final. 

[Richey Edwards]

I think Bullen will be thanking his lucky stars for the late show against Elgin City, as the positivity about reaching the cup quarter-finals has papered over the cracks a wee bit. We have not been anywhere near good enough for ages now.

[rb123!]

Pretty sure i seen somewhere that the budget for the season already accounted into getting this far in the Scottish Cup so we've already used the money which we'll make from the Quarters

[super_carson]

Mullin was down with cramp just before that free kick, think that's why he went off. 

[North British 2]

13 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

As I said we’re unlikely to alter anything if it means we have to find money from somewhere. We aren’t going to budget on the expectation we get into the semi final

I wouldn't expect us to budget on the expectation of reaching the semi final though I would and do expect us to use some of the £200k we have thus far banked from our cup run .  Thus giving us the best possible chance of reaching that semi final . If you are correct and the club won't spend then it is very likely that we'll go out of the cup at Falkirk and slip out the play off slots in the league 

[Mod1967]

Stop complaining it's one of our best seasons.....holy f**k what unbelievable pish. 

A decent season which is showing serious signs of ebbing away. 

[No_Problemo]

Teams have completely figured out our 4-4-2, direct approach. We need to play differently, or the Raith midfield three of Brown, Spencer and Stanton will just pass it round us at will all game and pick up the scraps off our long balls. Yes, the 4-3-3 largely didn’t work either, but IMO it was about the direct approach more than anything else. Win the midfield battle and get O’Connor and McAlear close to him and we’ll get the best out of him that way too. Someone in central midfield also needs to take some responsibility though. 
 

                            Albinson

McAllister      Kirk    Musonda  Houston

                         
                       Dempsey  Smith

Mullin                 McAlear        O’Connor

                             Akinyemi 

 

ETA, this was meant to go in the Raith thread, but can’t be bothered changing it now. 

Edited February 19 by No_Problemo

[D'Jaffo]

Just now, North British 2 said:

I wouldn't expect us to budget on the expectation of reaching the semi final though I would and do expect us to use some of the £200k we have thus far banked from our cup run .  Thus giving us the best possible chance of reaching that semi final . If you are correct and the club won't spend then it is very likely that we'll go out of the cup at Falkirk and slip out the play off slots in the league 

As I’ve said that money that we earned so far will be used next season when we actually receive it. That is how football clubs operate. We aren’t going about signing players in order to progress past a team in the league below. 

If we lose to Falkirk and drop out the playoffs then that is solely on Bullen and the players. He has a perfectly adequate group of players to finish 4th. They won’t win the league but 4th is achievable. It won’t be down to Mathie and Smith. Bullen was happy for the budget to be spent in the summer with the agreement in place that in January we would be operating on 1 in and 1 out. If that’s the case then we have room for one more in on loan, maybe McInroy maybe someone else. Mathie has done well enough to build a squad that was perfectly good enough up until now and also did well to ensure we kept Mullin and other key players. 

[D'Jaffo]

3 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

Teams have completely figured out our 4-4-2, direct approach. We need to play differently, or the Raith midfield three of Brown, Spencer and Stanton will just pass it round us at will all game and pick up the scraps off our long balls. Yes, the 4-3-3 largely didn’t work either, but IMO it was about the direct approach more than anything else. Win the midfield battle and get O’Connor and McAlear close to him and we’ll get the best out of him that way too. Someone in central midfield also needs to take some responsibility though. 
 

                            Albinson

McAllister      Kirk    Musonda  Houston

                         
                       Dempsey  Smith

Mullin                 McAlear        O’Connor

                             Akinyemi 

 

ETA, this was meant to go in the Raith thread, but can’t be bothered changing it now. 

If we’re going with that then I’d make the small adjustment of swapping Smith with McAlear. I don’t think McAlear has the pace to play in there whereas Smith was one of the only ones against Elgin and Partick willing to press and make runs. I don’t think he’s a natural attacking midfielder but I think he’d be quite handy at pressing defenders and winning fouls in dangerous areas. His control and passing in tight areas is quite good as well which I noticed in the 1-0 Accies game. 

[Mod1967]

I've never heard of a club outside the ugly sisters budgeting for a cup run to the quarter finals, that would be economic suicide surely, however D'jaffo is right if that's the budget spent and with the North terracing revamp coming you can only do what you can, if cup money is going on next year's budget along with possibly Dipos sale then fine. I like most fans would have pushed it in January, but I don't own the club have the money or business brain, fans would largely bankrupt their clubs, still a fairly average to poor window and Bullen seriously has to up his game because we're  currently only looking at going one way. 

[Mod1967]

7 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

Teams have completely figured out our 4-4-2, direct approach. We need to play differently, or the Raith midfield three of Brown, Spencer and Stanton will just pass it round us at will all game and pick up the scraps off our long balls. Yes, the 4-3-3 largely didn’t work either, but IMO it was about the direct approach more than anything else. Win the midfield battle and get O’Connor and McAlear close to him and we’ll get the best out of him that way too. Someone in central midfield also needs to take some responsibility though. 
 

                            Albinson

McAllister      Kirk    Musonda  Houston

                         
                       Dempsey  Smith

Mullin                 McAlear        O’Connor

                             Akinyemi 

 

ETA, this was meant to go in the Raith thread, but can’t be bothered changing it now. 

That's a very decent shout 

[No_Problemo]

1 minute ago, D'Jaffo said:

If we’re going with that then I’d make the small adjustment of swapping Smith with McAlear. I don’t think McAlear has the pace to play in there whereas Smith was one of the only ones against Elgin and Partick willing to press and make runs. I don’t think he’s a natural attacking midfielder but I think he’d be quite handy at pressing defenders and winning fouls in dangerous areas. His control and passing in tight areas is quite good as well which I noticed in the 1-0 Accies game. 

Funnily enough, I think Smith is better deeper - thought he was far better against Elgin when moved there - as you say his control and passing can be decent so hopefully he can help us dictate a game for once. 

I’m not entirely sure on McAlear yet, but he linked play well in advanced areas when he came on yesterday as well as winning the ball back well a few times. I’m largely going off the views of ICT fans though as we haven’t seen enough! He made us better when he came on though so needs to start in some capacity.