McCALL EYES LOAN LIFT
Short - term cover can ease strain caused by injuries
Ian McCall will press for a New Year loan to help Ayr through an injury jam.
Skipper Ross Docherty, Andy Geggan and Robbie Crawford — all key midfielders — are still on the crock list and will miss Saturday’s visit of Arbroath.
Boss McCall reckons an extra body would give his depleted ranks a shot in the arm for a vital month which sees United travel to leaders Raith and then host Arbroath again in the Scottish Cup.
McCall said: “We can cope with injuries even with a small squad but the problem is these three players are all in the same area and we do miss them.
“I’m going to speak to the board about maybe trying to get an experienced player in on loan.”
Ayr bounced back from Saturday’s shock 3- 2 defeat by bottom of the table Forfar to thrash Stranraer 5- 1 at Stair Park on Tuesday.
That took their goals tally to 84 for the season thanks to doubles from Lawrence Shankland and Alan Forrest along with a strike from Michael Moffat.
McCall admitted: “It was a great way to come back from the Forfar result which we still can’t get our heads around.
“We were irresistible going forward and looked like we could score every time we went up the park.
“I was delighted for Craig Reid, who came in and was excellent, while we got some of the young boys on — so it was a good day and a good result.
“I know Stranraer have problems but it’s never easy coming here, as we found in the play- off game a couple of years ago.”
Shankland’s double took his tally to 17 goals from 17 games, only two behind Craig Moore who again started on the bench on Tuesday.
Moffat is now on 11, two more than Declan McDaid. Ayr are scoring for fun but still have defensive concerns with only one clean sheet in the last 10 games.
McCall revealed: “We were gutted to lose a goal but at 5- 0 it happens sometimes. We were overdoing it in the last 20 minutes because we had too much time but I would have taken 5- 1 beforehand.
“We really felt the Forfar defeat but it happened and was a freak. We had more chances against Forfar than we did against Stranraer but our strikers were clinical today.”
Ayr are 4/ 7 to beat Arbroath ( 5/ 1). The draw is 3/ 1 with McBookie. com