Second-half strikes see Ayr in the fifth
Three second-half goals saw managerless Ayr United claim their place in the hat for the fifth round draw.
In blustery conditions at Somerset Park both sides struggled to find any kind of consistent possession during the first period.
However, the Championship side stepped up their game on the restart and ran out comfortable winners in theend.
Caretaker boss Davie White said: “We knew we would have to work for it today.
“Kelty are a good team, they like to retain possession of the ball and leading into half-time they were by far the better team.
“Half-time came at a good time for us but at the same time it was still 0-0 in the Scottish Cup.
“We kind of regrouped and tweaked a wee bit on how we pressed the ball and asked them for a bit more quality in the final third and I think that’s how the game panned out.”
Ayr had the first chance on seven minutes as Sean Mcginty’s clearance sent Anton Dowds on a foot race with Brad Mckay but the latter did enough to put Dowds off and block his shot.
Slack play from Jason Thomson then allowed Dowds to nick the ball and play it across to Paul Smith whose shot was blocked before falling to Dowds who wasn’t able to poke it past the keeper.
The visitors had their first genuine attempt on the half-hour through Stefan Mccluskey whose curling effort went just over the bar from the edge of the box.
Dowds proved himself a handful again just before the break when he got in front of a Kelty defender only to stab wide.
Minutes into the second half Ayr almost found the opener as
Logan Chalmers flashed the ball across the face of goal but Dowds couldn’t get that final touch.
Kelty nearly came close to grabbing a shock lead as Adam Corbett fired the ball to the back post but Alfie Bavidge couldn’t get a good connection on it to trouble the keeper.
With Ayr starting the second half a lot brighter a goal looked inevitable and it came when the ball broke to Roy Sylla at the edge of the box and he sent a brilliant curler into the bottom corner, leaving Kyle Gourlay rooted to the spot.
Just minutes after coming on Ahkeem Rose doubled Ayr’s lead, an unfortunate slip in the Kelty defence allowing the substitute to turn and
quickly fire low into the net.
In the 90th minute Ayr made it three through Mark Mckenzie as his right footed curler from 18 yards out beat the helpless Kyle Gourlay.
Rose turned provider as Ayr finished on top, Mark Mckenzie slotting the third at the death.
Kelty player/boss Michael Tidser said: “I thought for large spells we were really good in the game without creating anything clear cut.
“But we then obviously make a mistake and you get punished at this level. I can’t be too critical with the lads. I thought we showed real composure and a wee bit of character to try to control the game for spells.”