Goals lost were all avoidable, laments Kerr
Mark Kerr admitted Ayr United were “killed” by their inability to handle Livingston’s aerial threat.
The Championship outfit saw their hopes of springing a Betfred Cup upset decimated during a woeful first-half showing in West Lothian, shipping four eminently avoidable goals from crosses.
And Kerr could barely contain his frustration, insisting his charges played into Livi’s hands by continually giving away dangerous free-kicks, failing to stop deliveries and source and not competing well enough inside the box.
“We killed ourselves early doors,” said the Honest Men’s player/manager.
“We know how to defend set-plays and know that, if they are taking short throw-ins and putting in crosses, then we should be getting out and influencing it.
“We need to stop the crosses and don’t give away free-kicks all the time when we are not defending free-kicks and corners well. The goals were totally avoidable.
“Stopping crosses is something we haven’t had a problem with this season but I think that step up in class, and the movement before the ball comes in, is something that has shocked us – but I don’t know why because we’ve watched the footage and seen what they do.
“I thought we were big enough and strong enough to deal with the threats but we didn’t at all.
“We just continually played into their hands and, to be fair, Livingston were good after getting the lead. When you go a few goals up early on, then it’s a great chance to pass the ball on a pitch like this.”
Kerr, however, insisted he had no regrets about his approach after setting his side out to play expansive, passing football – insisting attempting to shut up shop against their Premiership opponents would not have brought any more joy.
“If we’d wanted to go defensive and just soak up pressure then we could have done that,” added Kerr. “But it wouldn’t have been a different outcome because we didn’t deal with the basics.
“We were set up to come here and play football but we didn’t do any of it.”