Local lad consigns Ayr United to the play-offs

May 8 2009 by Mike Wilson

HERO keeper Raymond Jellema consigned his home town Ayr to the play-offs with two brilliant saves but joked he wouldn't be hitting the streets to party.

The Alloa number one admitted his last gasp stop to deny Kenny Connolly near the end was one of the best of his career. And boss Allan Maitland hailed him for an equally magnificent save when he tipped a Chris Aitken free-kick on to the bar.

Jellema, who grew up as an Ayr season ticket holder, broke the home hearts as he killed their title dream and sent them instead into a home and away semi-final shoot-out against Brechin.

The former Prestwick Academy pupil grinned: "It's a perfect day for us. We knew we had to match Queen's Park's results to be safe and we've more than done that. I used to come and watch Ayr as a boy so good luck to them in the play-offs but I don't think I'll be going out on the town tonight."

Do or die Ayr had to win to keep the heat on Raith but fell well short in a nervous display. And a costly booking for Ryan Stevenson, for bringing down Brian Carrigan, means he is facing a two game ban.

United survived some early scares before creating some great openings. Aitken had a shot booted off the line by Chris Townsley before Scott Walker met a Stevenson corner but blazed his header well wide.

However, the goal came in 38 minutes when Stevenson and Aitken combined to set up Mark Roberts to prod the ball home his fifth of the season.

They went close to a second soon after the interval when Aitken curled in a free-kick which was netbound until Jellema tipped it on to the underside of the bar.

But as Ayr seemed to lose their way, Alloa grew in stature and in 75 minutes 18-year-old Gary Carroll sent a defence splitting pass through to 16-year-old Greig Spence who sped clear to slide the ball past Stephen Grindlay.

Desperate Ayr went all out and only Jellema's heroics kept out Connolly's point blank effort from a Ryan Borris cross near the end.

Disappointed boss Brian Reid claimed: "In the first-half, we played reasonably well and created a few chances but only took one of them. That left us always vulnerable.

"For spells in the second-half, I think the boys thought they were winning at 1-0, they sat back and got casual and slack. That let Alloa come back to haunt us. I'm very disappointed we let it go so easily and that's not good enough.

"We now need to pick ourselves up for the play-offs and keep the momentum going."

STAR MEN: ***Mark Roberts; **Kenny Connolly; *Chris Aitken.

AYR - Grindlay; Dempsie, Walker, Keenan, Easton (Borris 82); Stevenson, Aitken, Connolly; Roberts, Prunty (Williams 82), Gormley. Unused subs: Mitchell, McGowan, Campbell. Booked: Prunty, Stevenson.

ALLOA - Jellema; McClune, McCafferty; Townsley, Buist, Grant; Carroll, Hill (Scullion 69), Carrigan (Kerr 83), Spence, MacAulay. Unused subs: White, Barker, Campbell.

Referee - Stuart Dougal; Crowd - 2195.