Honest Men hold out for better striker offer

Ayr United have rejected a bid of £150,000 for prolific striker Lawrence Shankland, who is understood to be on the radar of a host of clubs including Dundee, writes Neil Robertson.

The 22-year-old scored 29 times for the Honest Men in League 1 last season to help his team win promotion and has picked up where he left off in this campaign.

Shankland has already hit the back of the net on nine occasions, including a double against Partick Thistle on Saturday in Ayr’s Championship opener.

Now, an unnamed English club has come in with a six-figure bid which the Somerset Park board have turned down.

Ayr boss Ian McCall said: “Lawrence remains fully committed to this club as his performance on Saturday showed.”

The Honest men are understood to be holding out for a fee in the region of £250,000 for Shankland, who signed a new one-year deal in May.

When asked last week about Dundee being linked with the striker, Dens boss Neil McCann didn’t deny there was interest, saying: “There are loads of good players out there and it would be remiss of me to just cast my eye to European and English markets and ignore what we have here in Scotland.

“There are lots of good strikers going about in Scotland but generally they are hard to get away from their clubs. We are all fishing in the same pond.”

Meanwhile, former Morton player Mark Russell, who had a trial recently with Dundee, has signed a permanent deal with Falkirk.