UPBEAT Ayr United boss Ian McCall spoke of his pride in the team after their dreams of Premiership play-off glory were dashed in the Highlands on Saturday.

The manager concedes that players will be moving on and moving in following the 1-1 second leg defeat away to Inverness Caley Thistle following a 3-1 defeat in the opening leg at Somerset Park last Tuesday.

A host of players are now set to move on - Liam Smith is off to Dundee United and Lawrence Shankland and Michael Rose are both set to head for pastures new..

Looking back on the game, McCall said: “Unfortunately we couldn’t replicate the last day last season.

“But we had two or three chances at 1-0 to go further ahead but didn’t take them.

“Over the two games we played the best football, there’s no doubt about it but their set-pieces were effective.

Even if we had got through to play Dundee United I don’t know how we would cope as we were struggling with a couple of major injuries. Ourselves and Ross County were the only teams every challenging for the league title.”

He added: The last two seasons have been magnificent and in the some of the away matches the support has been second to none.

“I have never been as proud of a team over the last two seasons. I had boys out there who could hardly walk and were giving their all.

“Everyone of the players on Saturday commented on how good the fans have been.”

Asked about the squad for next season McCall said: “It’s 100 per cent that Liam, Lawrence and Michael will be moving on but I have still to talk to Ross Doohan and Robbie Crawford has options and we will see how things go.”