Shankland’s starring role in six-goal thriller
County co-boss Steven Ferguson claimed he was mystified why ref Bobby Madden sent him to the stand in a six-goal top of the table thriller. Madden ordered the former Ayr star up the tunnel seconds after the home team had taken a 3-1 lead.
Josh Mullin’s wonder strike gave the Staggies an early lead but a Lawrence Shankland double before the break, taking his season’s tally to 28 goals, seemed to put United firmly in the driving seat.
However, two goals in four minutes from Billy Mckay and Don Cowie ensured a share of the spoils and left no one in a wind and rain-swept crowd feeling short-changed.
Ferguson said: “Hand on heart, I don’t know what happened with my sending off. I was genuinely concerned for Keith Watson as I thought he was knocked out. I didn’t swear – I just asked the ref firmly if he was OK.
“But it’s not about me, it’s how about both sets of players did. I was genuinely surprised as I thought you at least had to swear to get sent off.
“But it would be criminal to talk about me rather than the players. We’re really happy with the point given we were 3-1 down.”
Somerset boss Mccall claimed: “We lost the toss which was crucial.
“The first-half was a real game of football and we played really well.
“Lawrence actually missed his easiest chance for what would have been his hat-trick.
“The weather really changed for the
second-half and we found ourselves playing into a hurricane.
“They went long ball and there’s nothing wrong with that and they thoroughly deserved a draw although we had the best chance of the second-half with Liam Smith from two yards. “But we dug in and changed it to put on more height and it’s a good point in the end.”
The Highlanders took the lead with a stunning effort after 12 minutes. Stelios Demetriou crossed from the left of the
Ayr box and Mullin pounced with a powerful volley on the drop into the top corner.
Shankland almost brought a quick response when he stepped inside and aimed for the bottom corner, only for Scott Fox to save well.
County came close to doubling their lead after 16 minutes when Ross Stewart took the ball to the byline and tried to squeeze home a shot which ran across the face of goal.
Ayr were level five minutes later.