THE euphoria which surrounded Ayr United's Playoff Championship triumph against Stranraer back in May has been replaced with the reality that they face a tough test to retain their place in Scottish football's middle tier.

But manager Ian McCall remains upbeat at the Honest Men's prospects of consolidating their place in the Ladbrokes Championship

As we reach the season's halfway point they are in the bottom half of the league, still six points clear of basement team St Mirren following the 1-1 draw in Paisley on December 17.

United bring 2016 to a close on Hogmanay with a derby clash away to a Queen of the South side who defeated them 4-1 at Palmerston in August with United winning the corresponding game 1-0 at Somerset Park back in October. Highlights of the season so far include a 2-1 win way to leaders Hibernian back in September, along with a 3-0 triumph away to Dumbarton the following month.

McCall is encouraged with progress but feels his side should have a higher points tally and said: "I am happy with how things are going so far but I feel we should have had two or three more wins, or be six to nine points better off at this stage of the season. We should have beaten Dundee United the other week but lost and we could have beaten Raith Rovers and S Mirren but we ended up drawing with them.

"I wasn't sure how things would go but two or three players have really stepped up to play at this level and that is encouraging. We have two or three very winnable games coming up and must look to make the most of them."

Survival, McCall insists has always been the aim since the heady days of May when they celebrated promotion success.

He said: "Our target has always been to consolidate in this league and hopefully we can achieve that."

Meanwhile striker Craig Moore is set to return from injury by January 16 after undergoing lengthy treatment for secondary concussion which has kept him sidelined since July.

McCall said: "It has been difficult being without Craig and it will be good to have him back."

The boss is still considering adding a striker to his squad and added; "It's possible we could bring someone in during the January window and I have a few names in mind although we won't bring someone in for the sake of it."