Stenhousemuir vs Ayr United

Match Report

Last night we faced Scott Brown’s Honest Men in our penultimate group game of the Premier Sports Cup.

An exciting game was on the horizon with both teams aiming to secure three points and push on to the next round.

We gave our fans a thrilling opening five minutes and anticipated that the excitement would build, however Ayr United had other plans and ensured the three points returned to the Ayrshire coast.

Warriors’ euphoria was palpable all around Ochilview Park in the 5th minute when Bilham’s beautifully weighted ball made its way through to Taylor who make no mistake in firing the Warriors into the lead. 1-0.

The Honest Men proved that they were going to be tough competition 2 minutes later, when Oakley rose highest to a cross and powered his header in to draw Ayr level. 1-1.

The next 20 minutes became a bit docile with Ayr having a large share of possession but causing very few problems.

The Honest Men made sure their bulk of possession would not go to waste, when they doubled their lead before half time. Another great cross in from Ayr United caused us problems and allowed Musonda to get on the scoresheet with a headed effort. It wasn’t the cleanest of connections but did the job in nudging Ayr United into the lead. 1-2.

We went into the break trailing by only one goal, with many positives to take from our first half performance. We weathered Ayr United’s storm, but the second half proved it was not our night with us gifting Ayr United a copious number of opportunities to push on ahead.

The Honest Men only needed 10 minutes after the restart to find the back of the net through danger man Anton Dowds. A corner swung in by Hastie connected with an unmarked Oakley. He flicked the ball on to Dowds who headed the ball into an empty net. 1-3.

In the 65th minute, another cross in proved to be our kryptonite and allowed Henderson to join the scoring action, heading in Ayr’s 4th of the evening. 1-4.

Despite pre-match optimism, it proved to be a difficult evening for us. A quality performance from Ayr United means we will unfortunately miss out on the next round of the cup. All is still to play for when we take on Falkirk on Saturday at Falkirk Stadium, when we have the chance to register our second win of the cup and showcase another solid team performance.

Make sure you come and support Gary and the boys on Saturday and get right behind the Warriors!

Preview

Tomorrow night we face Ayr United in our penultimate Premier Sports Cup group stage game.

We take on the Championship team at home, aiming to seal three points and draw ourselves closer to the next round of the Cup.

We face The Honest Men with previous matches favouring Ayr United with them securing 9 victories. We are not far behind with 6 wins- a pretty even playing field in terms of results for Tuesday night!

Former Celtic captain, Scott Brown will be seeking to manage his team out of the group stage for the first time in his career. This feat is only achievable with an Ayr United victory at Ochilview Park- a battle that will be fiercely contested by the Warriors.

The target man for The Honest Men last season was Anton Dowds, who was on loan Partick Thistle. He tallied 13 goals and 6 assists across all competitions. The striker made the permanent switch to Ayr United this season and has netted 1 goal so far.

Come and support the team tomorrow night in our push for the next stage of the cup! Tickets can be purchased on the fanbase app.