Defence is still an issue

Narrow defeats in our most recent games to League One’s runaway title contenders has to indicate progress being made under the club’s new regime.

Ayr United will certainly consider Saturday’s triumph at the Excelsior a major step towards what is shaping up to be a victorious campaign.

Consistently high scorers, the Honest Men’s path to goal was smoothed considerably on this occasion by more weak defending from a Diamonds rearguard who looked glaringly exposed each time their opponents crossed the half-way line.

Even after an offside call denied the Honest Men a chance to finally go ahead, you just had the feeling their chance would come again soon. And come it did. Jack Hastie hit the post late on but, on balance, Airdrie have Rohan Ferguson to thank for keeping them in the game for so long.

Under Ian McCall, Ayr have taken on a certain sneering haughtiness.

Borrowing some of their‘attitude’ might go some way to making our own team harder to beat.

In some ways, Stephen Findlay fits the promising young manager profile perfectly.

His efforts to form a solid backline have failed miserably however.

Fortunately, he has the summer to sort that out.