Published: Friday, 23rd January, 2009 11:00am

Ayr United lose in another cup cracker

by Frank Cassidy

Comments (0) | Print | Email

Kilmarnock 3 Ayr United 1

AYR United"s brave bid to progress in the cup at the expense of their more affluent local rivals came to an end on Thursday night.

But if the contest had been between the supporters it would have been a decisive away win as the visitors backed their team vigourously for the whole match - and an extra 10 minutes as they were locked in!

Before a TV audience of millions on SKY and Kilmarnock"s biggest crowd of the season, 11,563, Ayr took an early lead through Bryan Prunty in just 10 minutes.

They had stood firm to a couple of early attacks from the home side when Dean Keenan latched on to the ball after a poor clearance and sent it long and high towards the danger area.

Prunty had it all to do though as the keeper and a defender closed in on him but he managed to steer the ball into the net - although it emerged later that he had used his hand.

Just four minutes later, United had a glorious chance to make it 2-0 when another defensive mix-up found Ryan Stevenson in the clear but, possibly surprised to have such a gift, the midfielder failed to connect properly.

The match was end-to-end at this point and the cracking atmosphere, helped by a sell-out Ayr United section, was cranked up even further as Killie tried to come back.

With Mehdi Taouil threatening, Scott Walker stood firm and denied him space to cause any damage before a superb Willie Gibson run led to a close call as he shot just past.

Brain Reid then had to re-jig his plans when scorer Prunty had to depart injured in the 22nd minute, giving the hero of the first match, Alex Williams, a chance to repeat his endeavours.

But the stars of this show were the Ayr United defence and midfield who were soaking up the pressure with Stevenson strolling through the match against his higher-paid opponents.

Meanwhile, Kilmarnock were reduced to attacks on the flank through Gibson on the right and were coping well, although Keenan found himself booked after he fouled the winger.

Just before the break, Gibson managed to get a decent cross in which was met by Allan Russell whose hooked shot was wide and the first half ended with United holding on to the lead comfortably.

However, just five minutes after the break the match was level when a Gibson free-kick was met by Simon Ford who rose above the defence to head home.

Undaunted by this, Ayr went on the offensive and, with a similar move of their own, saw a back-post header from Martyn Campbell come close after a Chris Aitken free-kick.

In the 62nd minute they again threatened with a breakaway after withstanding a spell of pressure but, with maybe more time than he realised, David Gormley shot wildly.

But possibly the defining moment of this classic cup-tie, that was keeping the record crowd highly entertained, came when David Fernandez was red-carded in 69 minutes.

As is often the case, the remaining 10 men seemed to find that something extra and they were in front six minutes later when Stephen Grindlay could only parry a Craig Bryson shot and Taouil scored.

Five minutes later the match was over as a contest when Ford again out-leaped everyone in the box as he got on the end of an inch-perfect Taouil corner.

With the home fans now buoyant, and their team lifted by events on the park, there was no way back for Ayr although their superb supporters still made plenty noise.

After the match manager Brain Reid agreed that the sending off changed the match, but praised his players for their efforts over the two matches.

He said: 'In the first half we held our own and went in 1-0 up and were delighted with that but they got the equaliser after just five minutes of the second half.

'It was disappointing because set pieces really floored us tonight - no doubt there were some great deliveries in, but if you don"t pick your men up in the box you are going to get punished.

'You can"t switch off for a second against a Premier League side, but the annoying thing is that we haven"t lost a goal from a set piece this season.'

While Brian was critical of this aspect of the play, he said: 'I can"t fault their effort over the two games as well as the support who filled the stand behind the goal - it was disappointing we couldn"t give them something.'

Meanwhile Killie manager Jim Jeffries thanked a reporter for helping fire up his team.

Although the journalist in question was not present at the after-match press conference, Jeffries said: "I pinned his article up on the wall and that's all the motivation we needed."

Team - Stephen Grindlay, Alan Dempsie (Scott Agnew 81), Neil McGowan, Scott Walker, Martyn Campbell, Ryan Stevenson, Dean Keenan, Chris Aitken, Bryan Prunty (Alex Williams 22), David Gormley (Ryan Borris 83), Willie Esaton. Unused subs - Fraser Stewart and Murray Henderson.