Ash apologises after Ayr

“Absolute rubbish. I can only apologise to the fans who have paid money and to the staff who were there. We have let everybody down

Skipper Lee Ashcroft was somewhat lost for words in the aftermath of a disappointing result at Somerset Park on Saturday. He said:-

“I don’t know what to say other than apologise to everyone who came down to Ayr. We just weren’t good enough, I don’t know what it was but we were miles off it and deserved what we got.

“We were absolutely rubbish and it is only something that we can fix ourselves. We need to get our finger out, that was a big warning.”

Ayr United portrayed the confidence of a team that will reach the end of August undefeated and they benefited from an early goal. Lee continued:-

“After they scored a lot of the boys heads went down, that cannot happen. We need to stick together and even when you are not playing well snuff out the opposition to make sure that things like that don’t happen.

“They got three goals in front and we weren’t in the game at all. We got a goal back but still never created much. Obviously losing the fourth goal just summed up the day - it just wasn’t good enough from our point of view.

“I can only apologise to the fans who have paid money and to the staff who were there. We have let everybody down at Ayr.”

Was it complacency after the fine showing against Hearts?

“We spoke about that before the game. Last week we played well but at the end of the day it was still a defeat. We know that ourselves but we went to Ayr and were just not at the races. We let ourselves down most of all in the way we played.

“Credit to Ayr, they played to their strengths and dominated for ninety minutes of the game and that should not happen with the players we have in that changing room.

“We have had a chat and it is down to us to fix that. Get back into training this week, have a good week’s training and put it right next week.”

Before the half hour mark had been reached, the manager made a decision to change his formation. Lee commented:-

“You could see at the time that it just wasn’t working for us. I don’t know if the game would have changed had we kept it or not, but it was his decision to change it. It doesn’t matter what formation you are playing, if you don’t turn up, play and work then that is what can happen.”

Part of the captain’s role is to hold the players together through tough results like this one. Lee added:-

“There are always going to be boys shouting but even sometimes when you are winning that can happen. We need to stick together as a team because if we are out there and not helping each other things like that will happen.

“We have a good changing room, it is not as if boys are not working for each other. It was just one of those days where things did not go right for us. We have all got ourselves to blame, all eleven players. There is not one single player out there that we can blame.

“I think we made it easy for them. They gave us a bit of a battering and we know that cannot happen.”

The manager singled out Ayr striker Lawrence Shankland as the difference between the teams but Lee felt that all eleven Ayr players were better than his sides.

“Anybody watching the game could see that and we know that we weren’t good enough all over the park. They won their battles and looked like they were hungrier than us.”

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