BOSS: BEWARE WOUNDED AYR
Rankin reckons rivals will be hurting after cup heartache
John Rankin reckons Hamilton Accies will be facing a wounded animal when they welcome Ayr United on Saturday in another crunch clash for their Championship survival bid.
The Accies gaffer was in attendance on Monday night as the Honest Men let a 1-0 lead slip away to Falkirk in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals, and the Bairns booked their place in the last four with a 2-1 win courtesy of a winner from ex-accie Kai Kennedy.
Falkirk landed a semifinal clash with Inverness, avoiding the Old Firm, to leave Ayr wondering what might have been.
So Rankin admits his side need to be prepared to handle a side hurting from their cup agony, as he aims to claim the points that can take them further away from bottom side Arbroath.
He said: “We know what was at stake for Ayr on Monday and when they saw the draw, that there’s a real chance to get to the final, they will be upset about that. So we need to be ready for that and we will give them the respect they deserve.
“I thought Ayr were really impressive in the first half. Falkirk were backed by a strong support and came back in the second half, but the game swung on a missed penalty.
“We know exactly what to expect from Ayr. We’ve played them three times already this season. They’ve got real threats going forward and we need to be ready for that.”
Accies have yet to beat Ayr this term having drawn 2-2 at Somerset Park in August, lost 3-2 at New Douglas Park in November and fell to a narrow 1-0 defeat in the last meeting in January when a deflected strike from exaccie Josh Mullin gave the hosts victory. That match was a turning point for Accies, though, as they looked more solid defensively after a poor run of form towards the end of 2022.
From that game onwards, Accies managed to string results together that pulled them off the bottom of the table and Rankin hopes Ayr can be the catalyst for them again, after a draw with Arbroath and a defeat to Queen’s Park in their last two outings.
Rankin said: “We lost 1-0 to Ayr last time but we could see then things we were working on starting to come to fruition.
“We lost a deflected goal and felt a little bit hard done by. We looked more of a team, more solid. It gave us a platform to build on.
“The new signings have adapted well since then and we’ve brought others in to help since.
“After that game, we put a run of results together and we need to get another positive