Ayr United 3 Dunfermline 0
There have been easy inquiries to be requested at Somerset Park. Can Ayr United get out of the Championship? And might Dunfermline keep in it?
The solutions had been inconclusive. Ayr’s victory means a play-off spot is confirmed, however not automated promotion. Dunfermline’s fragile show means a play-off that opens the trapdoor to League One can’t be discounted.
This was the sobering actuality behind the comprehensible hype of the Pars having a one-time-£12million participant being signed — after which despatched off in his first sport — and the appreciable celeb of managers Neil Lennon and Scott Brown within the dugouts.
A substantial travelling assist, impeccably detailed at 922, was boisterous and inspiring. The Lennon issue has invigorated them however the supervisor is aware of outcomes should observe. The Fifers adhere to that weary template of most struggling groups: they conceded targets, they usually can’t rating. It’s a easy equation that managers wrestle to unravel.
Brown and Lennon might be consoled of their instant ambitions by assist from the terraces. The Hub at Somerset Park on Saturday was teeming with followers of each golf equipment. There was expectation definitely, and likewise a agency grasp of the truth that faces their golf equipment.
The Lennon and Victor Wanyama issue had enticed brothers Gary and Derek Ramsay, their pal Andy Wellwood, and his 14-year-old son Keir, to make the journey from Fife.
Victor Wanyama is given his marching orders on his Pars debut by referee Iain Snedden
Lennon cannot consider what he is seeing as Pars lose 3-0 and his star man is pink carded
Scott Brown had a far happier day as he went head-to-head together with his former boss Lennon
‘He has been a Dunfermline fan all his days. He was a mascot and performed for the academy group and is now at Alloa,’ says his dad of Keir.
‘I work shifts so don’t go to all of the video games however Lennon and Wanyama made the choice for me as we speak. It has been a disappointing season and we shouldn’t be the place we’re. The explanations? Managerial appointments and never sufficient funding.’
Derek Ramsay, who was on the 1965 cup ultimate when Jock Stein’s Celtic defeated the Pars, chips in: ‘I used to be simply 9 then, however it has been a tricky time since. We needs to be an enormous membership and we aren’t in the meanwhile. The intention is to remain up this season and a minimum of get to the play-offs subsequent 12 months.’
The temper amongst Ayr supporters was predictably extra buoyant. Glenn Montgomery, 58, has been coming to Somerset for greater than half a century. ‘My cousin ultimately married Johnny Doyle, the nice Ayr hero who went on to play for Celtic. She was going out with him then. so my uncle took me to the video games and I’ve stored coming again.
‘Initially of the season it regarded very promising,’ he says of the current marketing campaign. ‘Then got here a foul spell after which we got here again once more. For those who ask any Ayr fan earlier than the season, they’d have taken difficult for second.’
His mate, Kevin Shove, says: ‘I had a wee guess at 7-1 on us to win the league however the carry-on with rotation of keepers and large Anton Dowds getting injured initially of the season has derailed us a bit.’
Montgomery factors out, although: ‘We’re getting into the appropriate path.’
On the subsequent desk within the Hub, Gordon McBlain, as soon as a sponsor of the membership and a long-time supporter, is wry about his life at Somerset.
Neil Lennon despatched on Wanyama for his Dunfermline debut within the sixty fifth minute at Ayr
Nevertheless, the ex-Celtic star lasted simply 18 minutes as he was despatched off for deliberate handball
Lennon tries to console the Kenyan worldwide after he was dismissed at Somerset Park
‘I’m 62 and have been coming right here since I used to be eight or 9. I bear in mind the premier league (1978-79) once we obtained relegated. I assumed: “A 12 months down does us no hurt”. We’ve by no means been again.’
He factors out: “We’re sitting second, assured play-offs, but some are disenchanted. I’m all the time a assured particular person. I hope my greatest reminiscences are but to come back.’
His pal, Colin Sturgeon, says: ‘ I can bear in mind bits of the premier league. I used to be 5 – 6. My dad then stopped going however I got here again within the eighties with college mates and by no means wavered since then.
‘There’s a feeling of optimism. Now we have been chapping on the door and hopefully we get there quickly.’
Tom Simpson, who’s 51, says his greatest reminiscences are of beating Kilmarnock. Essentially the most well-known wins had been Scottish Cup tie victories in 1998 and 1999.
‘I used to be working in Abu Dhabi as an accountant,’ he says. ‘I used to be listening to a type of video games on the World Service and once we scored I jumped up and inadvertently gave my flat mate, who was standing behind me, an uppercut.’
He shares a slight sense of disappointment with different supporters that the nice begin to the season has not led to a spot on the prime of the desk however factors out that it is a season when the Championship was very open on the beginning line.
‘In earlier years you might have had Rangers, Hearts, Hibs, each Dundee sides…that’s very tough to go up towards. However this season I had a sense we had an opportunity. We made the play-offs below (Lee) Bullen a few seasons in the past however that was largely on the again of Dipo (Akineymi), who scored plenty of targets. This group is healthier all spherical.’
Former Ayr and Celtic striker Andy Walker was one other well-known face in attendance on Saturday
Ethan Walker, centre, celebrates after making it 3-0 for Ayr United towards Dunfermline
Brown is hoping time is on Ayr’s aspect as they search a spot in Premiership from the play-offs
He believes, although, that the foundations are in place for a greater future, irrespective of how this season performs out.
‘The chairman (David Smith) is a correct Ayr fan. He has began with the infrastructure and invested within the group, too. Now we have the constructing blocks in place.’
The Hub is a testomony to that technique, as is the north stand and the hospitality amenities. The membership have additionally acquired land behind the railway finish, with plans for coaching amenities.
One fan passes by and says: ‘He has even tarred the automotive park.’
This was little comfort for a neighborhood hero. Andy Walker, who performed for Ayr in 1998-99, and was a visitor at Saturday’s sport.
‘I turned up on the automotive park and the steward was desolate that she couldn’t supply me a spot,’ he says with amusing. ‘She mentioned it was full, however added: “If it was as much as me, you’d have a free automotive park house proper outdoors the doorways”. She nonetheless remembered me, notably for *that objective* towards Kilmarnock and kindly pointed me to an area on the road close by.’
Walker scored two penalties towards Kilmarnock within the win in January 1999. *That objective* was the second, a Panenka that has remained within the hearts of Ayr followers.
‘I cherished it right here,’ he says. ‘We had season and the spotlight was beating Kilmarnock, however we may have performed higher.’
A modest signal promotes a match which attracted plenty of media curiosity on Saturday
Lennon had clearly misplaced none of his hearth as he roared on his Dunfermline group in Ayr
It was to be day that led to disappointment for each Lennon and star signing Wanyama
He friends out via the rain to Somerset: ‘It’s a type of nice, old school stadiums that you simply love to go to.’
Is there an opportunity of that great floor internet hosting Premiership golf equipment commonly, maybe as a part of an prolonged prime division that might embrace the likes of Ayr, Dunfermline, Partick Thistle and Morton, who all have sturdy helps?
‘I see that prospect as full and utter fantasy, given how Scottish soccer works,’ says Walker. ‘Celtic and Rangers management every little thing, and you’ll by no means get it except they comply with it. And they’re going to by no means conform to it.
‘I hear league reconstruction on a regular basis from individuals who need to see the event of Scottish gamers. Take a look at the video games as we speak throughout all of the leagues. What number of younger Scots are enjoying?
‘I used to be in a younger group at Motherwell, with Chris McCart, Tom Boyd, Gary McAllister, Fraser Wishart…all of us obtained an opportunity early. I’m not certain that occurs now. I do know Motherwell have Lennon Miller however they’re recruiting from League One and Two in England, and even the Nationwide League. So do different sides in Scotland.
‘We see the outcomes of this. The under-21s had been thrashed by Iceland.’
The questions for Ayr and Dunfermline weren’t utterly answered on Saturday.
There are larger ones, nonetheless, for the Scottish sport.
