SHATTERED Ayr United club captain Ross Docherty has apologised to the fans for an "embarrassing" performance as they suffered arguably the worst result in their history.

And boss Ian McCall admits the player will now have to take the flak on the chin.

The Honest Men went down 1-0 to junior Premiership team Auchinleck Talbot at Beechwood Park, who defeated a Scottish League club for the first time.

And he admits the team have to pick themselves up quickly as they gear up to face Dundee United in a crunch Ladbrokes Championship match on Friday night.

The midfielder says his team have earned lots of praise in the last past 18 months but now have to take it firmly on the chin and make sure they put the result behind them.

He said: "It was an embarrassing result and my worst in football. The fans again gave us great backing as they do so often, but we let ourselves and also let them down. We should have been able to win the match but Auchinleck Talbot came with a game plan and they deserved to win. The guys have had a lot of praise but it's been a disappointing a couple of weeks for us after losing to Falkirk and we must pick ourselves up for the Dundee United match on Friday night. Hopefully the fans will come out and get right behind us.

"We have a really great record at home, having only lost once so it's important for us to get a win. We had a great win earlier this season up there but it will be a different game as they were in a bit of turmoil then. We could go top with a victory so that's the aim."

McCall said: "Talbot deserved to win and good luck to them in the next round. The game panned out the way Auchinleck wanted, we had two or three chances and didn't score. We had enough to win the game but our players have had constant praise for 18 months but they will have to take the stick comes our way because it's a bad result and we wanted to be in the last 16 but that's the nature of football."

Lawrence Shankland, Jamie Adams, Mark Kerr and Alan Forrest are all doubts for Friday.

The manager added: "It's a huge game for us, we have a good home record and our aim is to win and go top of the table."