Brian Reid vows to take relegated Ayr United back up

May 7 2010 by Mike WIlson, Ayrshire Post (main ed)

BRIAN REID has vowed to go all out to take Ayr United back into the First Division at the first time of asking.

And he pledged to work through the summer to assemble a squad good enough for the challenge.

Reid was set to meet his players on Wednesday evening but is resigned to losing a number of last season’s top earners.

He said: “We will still have full-time football but on part-time wages so it’s going to be tough.

“I’m not going to fill up the squad with 20 young boys who aren’t good enough. The team will still have a good spine so there will have to be the right mix of youth and experience.

“There are a lot of difficult places in the Second Division so we will have to be big and strong.

“I have built teams from almost scratch before and if so I will do it again. I’m up for the battle.

“I accept I am going to lose players, some by choice and some not. But I will learn from the experience and will do everything I can to put together a squad good enough to get us back up.”

Reid praised veteran Steve Bowey whose arrival in February saw Ayr go eight games unbeaten.

He said: “We always only had Bowser until the end of the season but his attitude was first class.

“He travelled up and down the road from Newcastle without a gripe when he could get a lot more money on his doorstep.”

Reid reckoned Saturday’s 2-1 gut wrenching defeat by Morton summed up Ayr’s season.

He claimed: “We dominated for long spells but didn’t put our chances away and that’s why we finished bottom.

“We weren’t relegated at Cappielow - it was over the last eight or nine weeks when we didn’t turn up. If we had turned up then the way we did against Morton we would have been fine.

“We were capable of staying in the First Division but until you learn your lessons that’s what happens.”