Ayr United manager Lee Bullen says losing an early goal was the ‘worst’ start for his side as they lost 2-0 to St Mirren at the weekend.

The Honest Men went into the Scottish Cup tie at Somerset Park with a tricky challenge up against Scottish Premiership opposition.

The Buddies showed their quality early on and quickly took the lead through Kyle McAllister’s header with less than 10 minutes on the clock.

The away side then doubled their lead midway through the half through ex-Kilmarnock star Greg Kiltie’s curled finish.

The hosts rallied in the second half but failed to get a breakthrough as their Scottish Cup journey ended in the Fourth Round.

Speaking to the Advertiser, Bullen said: “The worst thing you can do is give away a cheap goal like that to start the game off.

“Then you are starting to chase it and you could see them lift in confidence from it as well.”

Despite the cup disappointment there has been some positive developments at the club in the last week on the signings front.

The main news was the re-signing of defender, Jordan Houston on a new deal until 2023.

The right-back signed from Rangers in 2020 and has been a key figure in the Honest Men’s backline ever since.

Bullen says the resigning of the 21-year-old is key to the long term future of the club, adding: “We are delighted Houston has committed himself to the football club.

“I think he is enjoying his football at the moment and fingers crossed he continues on the upwards trajectory that he is on.

“We are trying to build something here, there has been a way of doing things in the past couple of years where players have signed one year contracts.

“That meant there was a big player churn at the end of every season, so if we can get players signed up for a couple of years then we can start to build things.”

The manager added: “We want to create a way that we want to play and have a spine of players that understand what we are doing.

“That makes it a lot easier for any new players coming in.”