Tom: I’m ready to repay gaffer
Walsh wants to play key role after injury hell
Tom Walsh insists he’s ready to repay the faith of boss Mark Kerr after a long spell on the crock list.
The former Inverness man has made just four starts for United since his switch from the Highlands.
But he pulled the strings here as Ayr bagged their first win in seven.
Walsh, who has missed most of the campaign with hamstring and calf injuries, said: “It’s been frustrating.
“When you come to a new club you want to play as many games as you can and show what you can do.
“So you have to be patient but the gaffer has been brilliant with me while I’ve been out.
“Hopefully I’m repaying him with my last couple of performances and I feel fit now.”
Ayr proved clinical in front of goal as they maintained their unbeaten home record.
And Walsh says the team will take huge confidence ahead of games with Hearts and Dundee.
He said: “Any win in this league is good but when you score four and it’s emphatic it’s great.
“But we’ve got good players and we know that.
“We’ll take one game at a time, we’re not even looking at the table at the moment.
“But we’re concentrating on winning as many games and getting as many points as we can.
“We’ve got big games coming up and we’ll definitely take confidence from this.”
Ayr made just the one change from the goalless draw at Dunfermline with new signing Andre Wright replacing Dario Zanatta.
And his impact was immediate with United looking far more of a threat in attack.
They grabbed a deserved early lead when a corner swung over to the backpost was met by Walsh and he fizzed a fine finish past Neil Parry.
But the Wasps drew level soon after with a goal of the season contender from Alan Trouten.
The former Ayr midfielder took a quick free kick from the centre circle and launched the ball over the head of Ayr keeper Viljami Sinisalo.
That stunned the hosts but they slowly regained control and Luke McCowan carved a cracking finish past Parry before half time.
Both sides had chances in an open start to the second half and Corrie Ndaba began to catch the eye down Ayr’s left with a couple of lung bursting runs deep into Alloa territory.
He went close with an effort which flew just wide before Ayr did grab a third when opposite full back Mikey Miller was hauled down in the box by Steven Hetherington.
Aaron Muirhead stepped up to slam home the spot kick.
And Ayr sealed it when Walsh crossed for McCowan to clip home his second with another fine finish.
United boss Mark Kerr said: “We have no excuses now.
“We have a striker who’s come in and immediately done well.
“Balls have been going across the box for weeks that we’ve not been getting on the end of.
“But today, we had quality coming in and we were a real threat.
“Tom was one of my biggest signings of the season but thankfully he’s now back and looking sharp again.
“I thought we looked a real threat and it was a really good performance.”
Wasps boss Peter Grant said: “The goals we lost were criminal.
“Ayr are a good side and we knew that coming in but we can’t be giving away things in the manner we did.
“Trouten’s goal showed the quality he has which he has showed throughout his career.”
AYR: SINISALO, MILLER, BAIRD, NDABA; MURDOCH, CHALMERS; MCCOWAN, SMITH (MCKENZIE 81), WALSH (ZANATTA 76), WRIGHT (MOFFAT 68). UNUSED: READING, ROSCOE, HEWITT, HARE-REID