Reaction

The Wasps suffered another home defeat in a game Ayr United showed the importance of scoring the first goal in such important games. Alloa Athletic played well in the match but suffered from lack of fire power in front of goal, Stuart Noble was badly missed and without him leading the attack the ball never seemed to be held up enough in the Ayr United box. Again the home side will look to chances missed and the poor quality of final passes and crosses into the box. The goal when it came was against the run of play but Alloa’s defending at the back post was posted asleep, Andy Scott allowing Willie Easton to ghost in and score an unlikely headed goal. This was a great chance for Alloa Athletic to go top of the league and give them a great boost but their recent home form has again let them down with no wins in their last four matches at Recreation Park.

allan maitland on ayr defeat

First and foremost it’s a game we should never have lost , our effort in the game has been fantastic, we were really flat in the first half but started the second half really well and created great chances – Mike Dunlop and Michael McGowan had great chances, and just before half-time Andy Scott should have scored. We had Ayr united on the back foot at that stage in the second half, the goal game against the run of play, a mistake from us obviously, sloppy lack of concentration at the back post and after that I thought Ayr united controlled the game really well and made it really difficult for us, we didn’t create many chances after the goal, it wasn’t through any lack of effort and I think it is the type of game last season we would have won. For whatever reason and I cannot put my finger on it we have individual errors just now costing us points, week in week out, our home form at the beginning of this season was magnificent but we have now played four games recently at home – drawn two and lost two and unless that improves then we are going to ask an awful lot of our away form to rescue that. We have a game on Tuesday night against Dumbarton, we are away to Brechin next Saturday, both are obviously very difficult games but are now games we need to win, we have put ourselves in a really difficult position, although the attitude and application was fantastic, the final ball was probably not right and lack of concentration cost us dear, very disappointing but we just have to make sure we collect all three points from Dumbarton – it is now a must win game for us. I think when we lost a goal of the nature we did today, the players were so disappointed and found it hard to pick themselves back up, especially when they had been controlling the game, then Ayr United got a huge lift from scoring the goal and they went on to play well after that, controlled the game and really restricted us, we never really had any chances after they scored and they possibly could have added a second. Goals change games and getting the first goal in this league is absolutely crucial and unfortunately we couldn’t manage that today – we had great chances but never took our opportunities in normal circumstances I would expect us to score and if you get ahead you have a chance winning but it wasn’t our day, in the end it was Ayr United’s day.

brian reid – ayr united manager

It wasn’t pretty at times but when we saw the conditions today with the swirling wind and rain it was difficult to play football and we ground out a result, I feel we can play a lot better than we did but its results that count and delighted to put things right after losing 4-1 on our last visit to Recreation Park earlier in the season. Glad to see Willie Easton get on the score sheet, I said to him before the game he was due a goal, its not like him scoring, I’m sure he had his eyes shut when he headed the ball into the net, but we need other players to chip in with goals at this club other than relying on only Mark Roberts, also another clean sheet was pleasing as well. The danger coming down here today is the players would be looking ahead to the Scottish Cup tie against Hibernian, so I’m glad we came through it and got the right result, going top of the league of course is a great added bonus!