New boss Weir knows he has a big job on his hands

Forfar boss Jim Weir insisted he had been under no illusions about the scale of the task facing him at Station Park.

But a 5-0 hammering at the hands of Ayr United underlined the crisis gripping the Loons as they slumped three points adrift at the foot of League One.

A second-half capitulation didn’t really flatter Ayr, who were clinical in their execution of chances.

But Forfar were masters of their own downfall too as they gifted goals to the Honest Men.

And eliminating those individual errors and players taking responsibility to improve their own performances is something Weir wants to see addressed.

“When you look at the games ahead of us, they don’t get any easier,” the Forfar manager said after his first home game in charge.

“There wasn’t much in it in the first half. But we did gift them the first goal and I felt we just had to focus more.

“But after we lost the second goal, I felt it was men against boys at times. Some of the defending decisions we made were just absolutely ridiculous.

“We looked as though we had given up in certain areas. That’s a thing we cannot accept.

“We have got to look at why that’s happening and we have got to look to change that mentality.

“I knew this was not going to be an easy task. I knew the start was going to be really, really tough.

“They (the players) have taken a wee dint in last couple of weeks losing late goals. But after 2-0 they showed the more hunger today to get more goals. We didn’t create a lot, I know that, but we certainly didn’t defend well.

“The players have got to put more demands on themselves on the park, take those demands and handle them. We have got experienced players in there that I feel are underperforming.

“I told them if they think they had a tough game today, it will be a lot tougher next week against a team that is really flying. But today has given me something to think about – quicker than I anticipated.”

Ayr took the lead on the quarter-hour mark after an absolute howler from Forfar’s Darren Whyte.

His passback to keeper Marc Mccallum was woefully short, allowing Michael Moffat to steal in and slip the ball home.

Ayr went two up in the 52nd minute through Lawrence Shankland before Moffat got his second 11 minutes later.

Moffat completed his hat-trick with 10 minutes to go.

Substitute Craig Moore got the fifth five minutes from time.