Voice of Reason
Shooting from the lip
Keystone Cops
Come the reckoning in any season, there will be one pivotal moment.
Usually, it’s at the climax of a campaign, where either promotion or relegation hangs by a thread.
But on Saturday at Cappielow, just three games in, you get the feeling Ayr United may already have had their moment.
When football players stand and look themselves in the mirror, many will see all the ability in the world staring back at them.
What’s much harder to see is character.
On Saturday, Ayr had relatively simple questions asked of their defence as the clock wound down.
And the reality is, those questions were not answered.
What should have been an impressive victory morphed into a spectacular defeat.
All within five horrific minutes. The question being asked now of those same players is what character they can show in response.
As bad as they would have felt on Saturday night, this could just act as the best team talk for Mark Kerr to pin on his wall.
United’s defenders know the blunt truth of what happened in Greenock.
And putting it right in the weeks to come must now act as their spur moving forward.
Ironically, Ayr had continued to show real signs of progress until the late shocker.
And they should have been going into this Saturday’s clash with Dunfermline sitting in second place.
Football is a game of fine margins. This much we know.
And to say some of the reaction to Saturday’s reverse has been... choice... would be putting it mildly.
But the only way Kerr and Ayr can set the record straight is to go out and convert these positive performances into points.
In Cammy Smith, United appear to have done some tremendous business, and the Dundee United loan star already looks a cut above this level.
Now Ayr must make the most of him and the rest of their attacking talent.