WHAT A WASTE
McCall: We’ve only ourselves to blame for shock cup exit
Ian McCall claimed Ayr had only themselves to blame as they crashed from the IRN- BRU Cup in a penalty shoot- out on Tuesday evening.
The shock defeat to League Two side Montrose followed on the heels of Saturday’s 2- 1 loss at home by Arbroath and stopped Ayr’s goal- laden start to the season in its tracks.
Ayr are now idle until their trip to league leaders Raith Rovers on Saturday, September 9.
But they could be without Ross Docherty for four weeks after the skipper lasted only 12 minutes before hurting his hamstring.
Frustrated boss McCall claimed: “We had enough chances to win three or four games and it was very different from Saturday.
“We were patient and had nine or ten really good chances to score — therefore we have only ourselves to blame, so good luck to Montrose in the next round.
“I wasn’t angry at how we played, certainly over the 90 minutes, but we had so much of the ball that we ran out of ideas.
“It just felt like one of these nights when we kept missing great chances. However, I was way more disappointed with Saturday’s performance.
“But the bottom line is we didn’t put the ball in the net after all these chances and live to rue it.”
Michael Moffat is still stuck on 99 goals and has now drawn two successive blanks. But he could easily have hit the ton with a host of great opportunities.
Ayr are now out to 7/ 4 second favourites for the League One title behind Raith who took over pole spot after their 5- 0 rout of East Fife.
Goals from Gabe Skeoch and Danny Mitchell ( penalty) gave Ayr 17s a 2- 0 win over Partick at Pollok Country Park.
Team: Graham, Nohar, Brown, Love, Oliphant, Griffiths, Ecrepont, Laurie, Barker, Frew, Skeoch. Subs: Ferguson, Mitchell, Bryce, Hannah, Wamuziri, Smith, McKinnon, Angus.
Academy fixtures: Saturday: 11s and 12s v Celtic ( at Barrowfield 10am, 1pm). On Sunday, the 15s and 17s play Hibs at Belmont Academy ( 1.30pm and 11am respectively).
The U20s play Airdrie at Somerset Park on Tuesday at 7.45pm.