AYR United put three points on the board for the first time this season on Saturday, August 12.

But despite his side defeating Inverness Caledonian Thistle 1-0 at Somerset Park, manager Lee Bullen cut a frustrated figure post-match.

The boss spoke to Ayr United TV following the game and appeared relieved that the 90 minutes were over.

“I think that football is away to A&E just to check the bruising it’s had," Bullen joked.

“For the first half hour it wasn’t bad, but thereafter it would have been a horrible watch. That’s me sitting from the bench, I wonder what the supporters are thinking."

It was a very impressive start from the Honest Men, who took the lead only eight minutes into the match when new signing Franny Amartey netted his first goal for the club.

It certainly looked like United were out to make amends for last weekend's disappointment at Morton - though Bullen said he noticed similar problems surfacing again.

He told Ayr United TV: “After the result last week at Morton, there were genuine and obvious nerves there after going 1-0 up, I think that played a major part.

“We need to be better than that, we need to show more composure than that.

“We’ve been passing the ball all pre-season but for some reason we decided to go long the majority of the time.

“On the short spells that we did get the ball down and pass, there was some good stuff – but not enough."

It echoed the thoughts the manager gave the Advertiser following the loss to Morton last week.

Though there was one key difference this weekend, as United secured three points despite the performance.

Bullen added: "One of our coaches said, we can’t be embarrassed by winning football matches – no matter how you play.

“We played about five times better than that against them (Inverness) last year, down here, early on in the season and we lost 1-0.

“The hardest three points of any season is the first three points, so there were obvious nerves there.

"[There is] Obvious room for improvement, but we’ll take the clean sheet, we’ll take the three points and that’s us off and running.”