aLLoa athLEtic 0
Ayr boss Mark Kerr was delighted after his side battled to victory, saying: “This was a hard match to play and we are delighted to have taken the three points.
“Today, on a good pitch, we played well. With results like this we can get into a play-off place.
“We need to build on what we have and push on to the end of the season. Today we tested Alloa and got the result we deserved.”
It was Ayr who took a surprise lead early in the first half when Aaron Drinan took advantage of a poor clearance by on-loan Alloa keeper Kieran Wright. The keeper fumbled the clearance from a cross by Stephen Kelly and, with his back to the goal, Drinan back-heeled the ball past the keeper and it trundled into the net.
Robert Thomson came close when he ran on to an Ayr defensive clearance but, with only the keeper to beat, his weak shot went straight into the arms of Ross Doohan in the visitors’ goal.
A minute later Thomson again came close but his shot was turned away for a corner by Doohan in the Ayr goal.
As the wind strengthened, play became scrappy with neither side being able to control the ball in the swirling wind.
Midway through the second half the visitors started to dominate play and they came close to extending their lead when Drinan fired in a fierce shot that went just wide.
Then it was the turn of substitute Scott Tiffany, who had a great chance in front of goal but could only scramble the ball past the post.
Alloa’s hopes of getting anything from the match were shattered late in the second half when Alan Forrest scored an outstanding goal from the edge of the penalty box with a curling shot that beat Wright and went into the top right-hand corner of the goal.
Disappointed Alloa boss, Peter Grant, said: “We made a bad error early in the match and that cost us dearly.
“Although I am disappointed with the result, we played really well and felt that we should have taken something from the match.
“We will continue to fight for points that will take us to safety.”