Ton v Ayr

[RossMcC1874]

I would say another worrying thing is that I can't see us signing any more players we already have a bloated squad. 

Not sure why players like McKay were signed nowhere near the level and O'Halloran is done. 

[Mr.Blue]

4 minutes ago, RossMcC1874 said:

I would say another worrying thing is that I can't see us signing any more players we already have a bloated squad. 

Not sure why players like McKay were signed nowhere near the level and O'Halloran is done. 

I thought McKay did well when he came on. Added some pace to the forward line. O'Halloran was fine today as well. Probably his best game for us.

[vikingTON]

31 minutes ago, RossMcC1874 said:

I would say another worrying thing is that I can't see us signing any more players we already have a bloated squad. 

Not sure why players like McKay were signed nowhere near the level and O'Halloran is done. 

Corr has a loan to Stenhousemuir and quietly punted out the door on the cards IMO.

26 minutes ago, Mr.Blue said:

I thought McKay did well when he came on. Added some pace to the forward line. O'Halloran was fine today as well. Probably his best game for us.

O'Halloran wasn't fine, none of the five sand dancers we fielded behind Brophy were fine today. He was however at the same level of ineffectiveness as the other 4, so... there's that. 

[Roger McQueen]

I do not understand the signing of O'Halloran. Surely we could have held out for a better option or loan. 

Upfront, we are limited for striking options and even before his injury, Tomi has been fairly poor. 

The squad is fairly large so I can't see any further players without bodies going out. Agree on the Corr front, it's not worked our and best to cut loses there. 

Signing a loan player, Hart, to sit on the bench is odd and surely the parent club are not going to be satisfied at that. Questionable signing to just be a back up or 4th chouce CB. 

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, Roger McQueen said:

I do not understand the signing of O'Halloran. Surely we could have held out for a better option or loan. 

Upfront, we are limited for striking options and even before his injury, Tomi has been fairly poor. 

The squad is fairly large so I can't see any further players without bodies going out. Agree on the Corr front, it's not worked our and best to cut loses there. 

Signing a loan player, Hart, to sit on the bench is odd and surely the parent club are not going to be satisfied at that. Questionable signing to just be a back up or 4th chouce CB. 

O'Halloran is doing coaching AFAIK so it's not too different to Sutton playing for us a few years ago. While we don’t know the full terms of the contract, the fury towards him seems irrational given all our other wide options are equally ineffective and contribute nothing comparable off the park to the club either. That Garrity (for example) is not able to force his way into that starting lineup from the time he has on the park to improve things is massively damning IMO. 

[Roger McQueen]

17 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

O'Halloran is doing coaching AFAIK so it's not too different to Sutton playing for us a few years ago. While we don’t know the full terms of the contract, the fury towards him seems irrational given all our other wide options are equally ineffective and contribute nothing comparable off the park to the club either. That Garrity (for example) is not able to force his way into that starting lineup from the time he has on the park to improve things is massively damning IMO. 

Agreed with that. The wide options are garbage. 

Garrity is an odd one, we knocked back a cash offer (apparently) and stated we wanted to keep him as an important part of what building. Be interesting to see how things go this season with him.

[vikingTON]

Two big positives from today:

1) Storer kept us in the game with the outstanding tip onto the bar from that mercenary Oakley at 1-2 late in the second half, and was excellent throughout again. His distribution would need be worked on to progress to the highest level (modern, ballplaying goalkeeper pish - see Man City earlier today), but he looks quite capable of being a good Scottish Premiership, English League One keeper in the very near future though. We've won a watch given that his previous experience was not at a convincing level. 

2) Brophy's two finishes were excellent while feeding off scraps all game, which is exactly what a team in our middle of the pack status sorely needs. While Adeloye is unpopular with quite a few supporters right now, he also has a talent for goalscoring that none of other attacking options can match if all put together. There are at least two finishers in this squad - having a more effective structure to win and then keep the ball should have us enough scoring goals to do alright this season. 

[Jamie_M]

12 minutes ago, Roger McQueen said:

Garrity is an odd one, we knocked back a cash offer (apparently) 

We accepted said offer.

Garrity rejected the option to move to Ireland.

[Roger McQueen]

4 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

Two big positives from today:

1) Storer kept us in the game with the outstanding tip onto the bar from that mercenary Oakley at 1-2 late in the second half, and was excellent throughout again. His distribution would need be worked on to progress to the highest level (modern, ballplaying goalkeeper pish - see Man City earlier today), but he looks quite capable of being a good Scottish Premiership, English League One keeper in the very near future though. We've won a watch given that his previous experience was not at a convincing level. 

2) Brophy's two finishes were excellent while feeding off scraps all game, which is exactly what a team in our middle of the pack status sorely needs. While Adeloye is unpopular with quite a few supporters right now, he also has a talent for goalscoring that none of other attacking options can match if all put together. There are at least two finishers in this squad - having a more effective structure to win and then keep the ball should have us enough scoring goals to do alright this season. 

I worry about if we can keep a hold of Storer for the season. I think if any scouts are watching our games frequently, he is going to stand out and be one that a few clubs may have a keen interest in. I don't know what Wolves position is or if they have plans for him but there might be a few bids for him. A great find. 

They don't make keeper like that up here, according to a previous coach. 

[GiGi]

11 minutes ago, Roger McQueen said:

I worry about if we can keep a hold of Storer for the season. I think if any scouts are watching our games frequently, he is going to stand out and be one that a few clubs may have a keen interest in. I don't know what Wolves position is or if they have plans for him but there might be a few bids for him. A great find. 

They don't make keeper like that up here, according to a previous coach. 

He's not going to be playing for Wolves and he is going to be playing for us every week. I see no reason he won't be here for the duration barring an injury. 

[vikingTON]

4 hours ago, Roger McQueen said:

We play the way we are playing and we could suffer a heavy defeat, sooner than later.

The heavy defeat is at Perth next Saturday, the important thing is that between our 3 draws and everyone rlse tripping up we can take that L and not find ourselves adrift. 

The rest of the first quarter fixtures aren't great either though. Not having any one of Queen’s Park, Arbroath or Airdrie at Cappielow before November 8th makes it far more challenging to pick up the first couple of wins than it ought to be. 

[AyrshireTon]

Thought we were poor today and didn’t deserve the point.

The fannying about at the back, particularly at goal kicks, needs addressed. We aren’t good at it, yet we persist with it. Ayr realised this and pressed high.

Their 1st goal was almost the same as Aberdeen’s 2nd last week. We gave the ball away endlessly and put ourselves under pressure constantly, just as we did last week.

Positives - Brophy’s finishing, Storer (again) and the few touches that McKay had.

I hope this isn’t going to be another season where we don’t start playing until November.

Edited August 23 by AyrshireTon

[Greacen2000]

That was a very hard watch today.  It felt at the time like we had robbed the point, but looking back I would say a draw was probably a fair result - both teams were very poor today and in the end we created just as many chances as Ayr did.  
 

Let’s not forget also that apart from blues, we had basically an entire  midfield missing - if available I’m sure Crawford & Gilliespie would have made a big difference to how we played, and again the hugely influential Wilson started on the bench which makes me think he must be carrying a knock.

Yes we need to start picking up wins and yes it’s disappointing not to beat a very poor Ayr side at home but all things considered I think we have done well to be sitting unbeaten after 3 games and but for a terrible penalty decision against Patrick we would be sitting on 5 points.

Looking at our next few fixtures its hard to predict where we might pick up our first win - St Johnstone & Raith will both be very tough games, and there’s no guarantee of us beating either Arbroath or QP away either.  
 

If our injury problems clear up & we manage to get in another defensive option then I think we have the makings of a really decent squad, but if not then we could easily find ourselves in trouble very quickly 

Edited August 24 by Greacen2000

[Ferguson]

Not sure what’s happened to Ballantyne, 2 or 3 pretty dreadful performances in a row now. 

Since Imrie said he’s wanting some players out the door no one has actually left so I’d imagine there’s still players to come and go. Frustrating but there’s positives in the fact that we’re finding ways to not lose when playing poorly. 

[Greacen2000]

On 8/25/2025 at 7:29 AM, Ferguson said:

Not sure what’s happened to Ballantyne, 2 or 3 pretty dreadful performances in a row now. 

Since Imrie said he’s wanting some players out the door no one has actually left so I’d imagine there’s still players to come and go. Frustrating but there’s positives in the fact that we’re finding ways to not lose when playing poorly. 

That's a bit harsh - there are a few players who have been pretty poor this season but Ballantyne wouldn't be the first name that comes to mind.

Based on earlier comments by the gaffer I was expecting us to have brought in at least 1 more player by now, but obviously other far more important events have taken place and it's understandable that nothing has happened on this front for the past few weeks.