Posted December 31, 2015

Once again the manager had the luxury of being able to field the same starting line up while Ayr had several first choices ruled out due to injury.

 

Like the first meeting at Somerset Park Ayr took an early lead, after two minutes, when Ross CALDWELL latched onto a pass from Devlin and beat the offside trap to run in and slot the ball past Sneddon.

 

However unlike the previous game we didn’t allow the loss of the early goal to affect us and were back on level terms two minutes later when Adamson played the ball into Spence whose header was parried by Keeper Fleming into the path of Dean BRETT who fired home the rebound from close range.

 

In 11 minutes we went in front with Brett sending in a high ball into the box with Fleming once again blocking a close range effort from Hughes with GREIG SPENCE on hand to slot home.

 

At the other end, Trouten found himself through on goal but Sneddon done well to block his shot.

 

The young keeper then blocked a Stevenson effort with 23 minutes gone and the danger was eventually cleared. Then Forrest saw a low long range effort go past the post.

 

Five minutes from the break we went further ahead when Gordon SMITH scoring from a move he started when he dispossessed Devlin at the halfway line.

 

He then went on a run allowing Adamson to have a shot from the edge of the box which was blocked by the keeper allowing Smith to shoot home from 14 yards.

 

The second half started with Ayr replacing Trouten with Preston while we remained unchanged.

 

The second half opened with the visitors looking to get back into the game and Forrest beat Scullion on the right wing to send in a shot at the near post which was blocked by Sneddon at the expense of a corner.

 

At the other end Fleming made what could have been a game changing save when Smith played the ball out to Donaldson on the wing who sent a cross over to the back post for Spence to latch onto but his shot was scooped away by the keeper.

 

With 59 minutes gone Ayr pulled a goal back. A headed clearance by McLaughlan at the halfway line was picked up by McCracken who sent the ball wide to Caldwell who squared the ball to Jordan PRESTON to slot the ball home from six yards.

 

Our response saw a curling shot from Spence come off the underside of the bar with Fleming saving Brett’s header from the rebound.

 

The keeper then denied Spence once more. After being set up by Hughes he unleashed a powerful shot from the edge of the box which was parried by the stopper.

 

However he wasn’t to be denied his second goal of the night when got onto the end of a Smith cross with 66 minutes gone to shoot home.

 

Sneddon then denied Preston saving his shot from the edge of the box as we saw out the remainder of an entertaining 90 minutes.

 

TEAM: Jamie Sneddon, Brad Donaldson, Fraser Kerr, Pat Scullion, Kenny Adamson, Dean Brett, Declan Hughes, Andy Murdoch, Liam Callaghan, Gordon Smith (Craig Johnston 90) & Greig Spence. Subs not used – Trialist, Aldin El Zubaidi, Mo yaqub, Chris Kane, Lewis Milne & Luke Armstrong.

 

Goals: Brett (4), Spence (11, 66), Smith (40).

 

AYR UNITED: Greg Fleming, Nicky Devlin, Mikey Donald, Andy Graham (Craig McCracken 55), Gerry McLaughlan, Ryan Stevenson, Peter Murphy, Robbie Crawford, Ross Caldwell, Alan Trouten (Jordan Preston 46) & Alan Forrest (Andy Muir 70). Subs not used – Shaun Newman & Sean McKenzie.

 

Goals: Caldwell (2), Preston (59).

 

Bookings: Graham (52), McLaughlan (79), Devlin (80).