Manager Post Ayr United

30/11/13: JJ "Overall it was a decent cup tie, probably a fair result and its an incentive for both clubs in the replay because the draw will be made

MATCH PICTURES
Jim Jefferies' team is in the draw for the next round of the William Hill Scottish Cup but he might have preferred to have been properly through. He commented post match:-

"You have to look at the game in sections. We started really well and for twenty five minutes we had them on the back foot having played great football. We scored a great goal and then I thought we got a little casual and sloppy and they got a lift from it.

"Through that sloppiness they got a couple of good efforts that Ryan Scully saved well. We were were lucky not to lose a goal in the last twenty minutes of the first half. It was a bit of an even half so to go in 1-0 up we had to say to them that we had to thank the goalkeeper and Callum Morris who had come up with a couple of timely headers. The rest of us were sleeping the rest of the time, too casual at coming out and let them get in behind us.

"Both teams sized each other up in the second half before they got the goal. That came from their first real opportunity in the second half. It was disappointing and our young boys have got to learn. Kevin Kyle kept the ball alive but when it falls down to one, we had three men round the same player. I could tell what he was going to do in terms of trying to get it on to his left foot to try and turn and hit it towards the goals.

"We allowed him to do that so that was disappointing but that seemed to galvanise us and we picked up the pace. We created three or four really good chances ourselves but then they started breaking very quickly against us and trying to obviously get balls in to Kyle for knock downs and feed off him. That was their plan and we tried to keep playing our passing game.

"It was end to end half in the last fifteen minutes and I think a draw was a fair result. It is a better result for us because as anybody knows even Premier League clubs - coming down to Ayr is not an easy place to get a result. I said before the game that it was going to be tight and there would not be a lot in it. Before the game if we were in the next round taking them back to East End Park we would be quite happy.

"We made enough chances and I think the one at the end there with Shaun Byrne, I was shouting 'please hit it, please hit it' to him. He has turned three players inside out but run out of ground and nothing came of it.

"Ryan Wallace had a couple of great chances to hit but the disappointing thing about our chances was that when they got their chances in the first half our goalkeeper had to make three or four good saves. Theirs didn't and that's disappointing because we had great opportunities to hit the target and we never did that enough. If you do not hit the target, you are not going to score.

"You have got the make the goalkeeper work, they worked our goalkeeper and he did his job but we didn't work theirs. We threw away these chances particularly the one at the end - I think he cannot believe that he did not take a shot. I thought that he could have done it the first time. The second time opened up great for him on his left foot but he wanted to get it on to his right and that extra man was too much.

"Overall it was a decent cup tie, probably a fair result and its an incentive for both clubs in the replay because the draw will be made (on Monday afternoon) and hopefully it will be kind to both of us that we have a tie to create a good game.

"People will say that the advantage swings to us but we know every game is tough for us with the inexperience that we have. We are are at home and with a good big support getting behind us. As long as we go and play the way that we can play, we can make it tough for them because they are a decent side with more experience in their side than us. We just have to cope with it."