Ayr United should have avoided defeat

Dec 26 2008 by Mike Wilson

BRIAN REID wrote off Ayr’s shock defeat at Peterhead as a bad day at the office and insisted they should have taken something from the game.

Poor finishing and twice hitting the woodwork conspired to send United home pointless from their longest journey of the league campaign.

Reid claimed: “We were on top for the first 15 minutes but couldn’t put the ball in the net.

“We created lots of chances but never took any of them which is unusual for us then we lost a soft goal to a free header.

“In the second-half we were on top for long spells and hit the post before being hit by two sucker punches.

“There is a fine line in this league and on another day we would have put them away.

“However, I am disappointed at the manner in which we shipped cheap goals so we need to tighten up the back.”

The Ayr team bus crept out of Somerset Park at 7.30am and the long haul north almost paid off in eight minutes when a Ryan Stevenson header looked netbound until Mikal Kula tipped it on to the bar.

Alex Williams headed wide but it was the Blue Toon who struck in 13 minutes when Graeme Sharp ghosted in at the near post to head home a Danny Moore free-kick from the right.

Scott Walker should have equalised before the break after Kula flapped at a corner but his shot was tame and straight into the keeper’s arms.

Sharp looped a shot over soon after the restart but Ayr were almost level when Dean Keenan burst from midfield but saw his curling shot from 12 yards smack off the post.

The action was end to end but it was Peterhead who doubled their lead 72 minutes when Martin Bavidge sidefooted the ball home after a great run and cutback by Stuart Mackay.

Williams was denied by a great save from Kula but it was all over with four minutes left. Sub Craig Gunn tried his hand with a speculative shot from 25 yards and the ball bobbled in front of Stephen Grindlay who could only watch it hit the back of the net.

STAR MEN: ***Dean Keenan; **Alex Williams; *David Gormley.

PETERHEAD: Kula; Donald, Moore; Smith, Macdonald, McVitie; Sharp, Ross (Gunn 64), Bavidge, Anderson, McKay. Unused subs: Cowie, Kozminski, Jarvie. Booked: Donald.

AYR: Grindlay; Dempsie, Walker, Campbell, Easton (Gormley 73); Stevenson, Keenan (Woodburn 86), Aitken, Agnew; Prunty, Williams (Weaver 85). Unused subs: Henderson, Stewart.

Referee: Tommy Robertson: Crowd: 631.