Ayr United manager Lee Bullen admitted the game was over after 20 minutes as they lost 3-1 to Kilmarnock on Friday.

The Honest Men went into the Ayrshire derby clash in good form having demolished Raith Rovers 4-0 a fortnight ago.

They also had bragging rights over Kilmarnock having beaten them 2-1 at Rugby Park last time out.

Despite all of that, they started woefully at Somerset Park on Friday night with the away side taking the lead inside two minutes.

Rory McKenzie capped off a nice move to put Killie ahead in the opening stages of the Scottish Championship clash.

It did not take long for them to find a second as Oli Shaw turned in Kyle Lafferty’s flick on from a corner.

Kilmarnock then grabbed their third, again from a corner, as Jack Sanders headed in to add to their lead.

Things went from bad to worse for Ayr when Markus Fjortoft was shown red after hauling down Shaw ,who was clean through on goal,

The hosts managed to grab a consolation at the end of the first half through Kerr McInroy to go in at the break 3-1 down.

Despite grabbing a goal back, the Honest Men could not muster up more of a fightback in the second half as they fell to their second derby defeat of the season.

Speaking to the Advertiser, Bullen said: “The game was done and dusted after 15/20 minutes, especially after the red card.

“If there is any sort of bright light we can take from the game it is that period after the sending off that the players rolled their sleeves up and showed a fair bit of character.”

One of those bright lights was McInroy who got on the scoresheet in the loss and has been a standout for United since his arrival on loan from Celtic.

The midfielder is out of contract with the Hoops in the summer and Bullen admitted he would be keen to keep him at Somerset Park.

He said: “If we had the finances to sign him then when we would love to but we are not in the ballpark at the moment.

“However, we we would never write it off.”