Ayr lose out to Edinburgh University

Mar 19 2008 Ayrshire Post

INCONSISTENT Ayr men’s 1st X1, who are sponsored by Ashleigh, lost 4-1 to Edinburgh University 2nd X1.

Ayr started well although always struggled to cope with Uni’s pace and slick passing. But Ayr defended strongly and were unfortunate not to convert one of several chances.

They were eventually punished when Uni scored towards the end of the first-half.

Ayr were sunk by two goals soon after the interval. Both were worked from short corners and diverted into the roof of the net by the Edinburgh striker.

Ayr could not recover from these knock out blows and struggled to contain an increasingly confident Uni team.

Edinburgh scored a further goal before Ayr got a consolation towards the end from Alan Low.

Ayr men’s 2nd X1 lost 7-1 to Kelburne 4ths at Bellahouston after turning up with only ten men and no regular keeper.

Trailing 2-0, Ayr fought back with attacking runs by Mungo Hay and good work by Tom Adams and Ali Shankland.

Cammy Thorne scored for the third week running, forcing a way through to net from the top of the circle. In the second half, Thorne was unlucky not to score a second. But Kelburne proved lethal anywhere near goal finishing well.

This weekend, Ayr face a relegation battle with Glasgow Accies who they must beat to retain their place in Division One.

Ayr men’s 3rd X1 crushed Western 6ths 5-2 in Glasgow but had to rely on some last gasp tackles by Murray McBride and Neil Riddle to keep the score level early on.

Ayr scored a super counter attacking goal with Craig Milby running on to a Paul Steel pass and hitting a supersonic shot into to the top left hand corner for possibly the goal of the season.

Steel and Simon Downs each added great goals to put Ayr 3-0 up at half time.

Then Milby set up Steele to score another super effort. Ayr were well on top now and George Adams and David Boyle were putting in a great shift after being called up from the 4ths.

Western pulled back two goals before Brian Robb ran on to a rebound and scored his fourth in three games.

A get well soon message goes to the 3rds most experienced player, Tom Livingstone, from all the boys.

Ayr fourth team's good run of results came to end when they lost 5-1 to Lochaber at Cambusdoon on Saturday.

Ayr took a shock lead after 10 minutes when Ruairidh McCurdy picked up a long through ball behind the Lochaber defence and buried a powerful shot.

This spurred on Lochaber and, despite some excellent defending from Ayr, they conceded three goals to well-worked short corner routines before the break.

Lochaber killed the game late on with two well taken goals. Defenders Derek Steel and Paul Williams stood firm against a strong running Lochaber side while man of the match William Boyle put in a tireless shift up front.

Ayr under 14s put in an excellent performance to come home unbeaten from the West District tournament in Glasgow on Sunday.

They played seven games, winning five and drawing two. There were great performances from Blair Wilson and Aston Kerr in goals, midfielders Luke and Elliott Spiers dictated play, while Charlie Adams, Adam Kidd and Colin Casey held firm in defence.