Jim Lauchlan’s unforgettable debut for Ayr United

Feb 4 2011 by Mike WIlson, Ayrshire Post (main ed)

HE'S a referee in waiting and already has two cup medals in his pocket this season.

Now new signing Jim Lauchlan can't wait to go on the silver trail for the third time when St Mirren visit Ayr on Saturday.

But he hopes it's a quieter affair than the crazy debut which saw him give away a penalty that wasn't, get booked and then launch the fightback with a stunning header.

Lauchlan, 33, checked in from Sligo Rovers, where he won two cups and helped them into Europe with a third place league finish.

He revealed: "I sat my referee exams when I was with Dundee last season. My priority is to keep playing but I want to stay in the game when I hang up my boots.

"I loved it in Ireland but am home for family reasons and now look forward to playing for Ayr.

"We've good players here and definitely have a chance against Saints. I came through the groundstaff at Kilmarnock with Mark Roberts and he is still a class act."

The game will be remembered for the bizarre sending-off of Jonathan Tiffoney in stoppage time. Blunder ref Neil Watters flashed a yellow but after consulting a linesman, gave a second yellow and then a red, clearly believing he had booked the player earlier which he hadn't.

That was the whistler's second howler after earlier awarding Stenny a penalty which not one player claimed for.

Lauchlan said: "Apparently I was tugging their striker and then got booked when I didn't even challenge for the ball.

"I genuinely thought the ref was giving us a free-kick for a foul on big Martyn Campbell. But it wasn't to be and things just picked up from there.

"The players are certain that Tiff hadn't been booked earlier so shouldn't have been sent off."

Roberts fired his 11th penalty of the season to put Ayr ahead in six minutes after Gary Thom brought down Alan Trouten.

Ross Clark levelled with a hotly disputed spot kick before Trouten was shown a straight red for lunging into Sean Dickson two minutes before the break.

Ayr were back in charge when Lauchlan and sub Ross Robertson headed home two Scott McLaughlin corners in a three minute spell at the start of the second-half.

Then came the wonder effort by 35-year-old Roberts to seemingly leave Stenny buried.

But goals from sub Simon Lynch and Ian Thompson set up a tense finale which boiled over when Tiffoney was sent off.

Boss Brian Reid said: "If Messi had scored the same goal as Marko, people would be raving about it. He's on a roll and was a bit disappointed when I took him off when he was on a hat-trick.

"But I have to think of the team and protect him for Saturday. You won't see a better goal in the Premier League than that one."

Stenny boss Davie Irons said: "I thought both penalties were pretty soft. I thought our defender got the ball and I didn't seeing anything at ours.

"It was certainly an eventful 90 minutes. With 10 men, Ayr passed it better than us and got themselves into a match winning position."

STAR MEN: ***Ryan McCann; **Mark Roberts; *Michael Moffat.

AYR - Crawford; Tiffoney, Campbell, Lauchlan, Malone; Trouten, McCann, McLaughlin, Easton (Robertson 46); Moffat, Roberts (Smith 78). Unused subs: McWilliams, Woodburn, Kelly.

STENHOUSEMUIR - McCluskey; Lyle, Dickson, Thom, Smith, I. Thompson, Anderson (Plenderleith 56), Clark (Lynch 73), Dalziel, Trialist, Murray. Unused subs: Brown, Quinn, S. Thompson.

Referee - Neil Watters; Crowd - 1181.