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Published 1 Sep 2010 10:47 0 Comments

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HAPPY DAYS: AYR United 17s celebrate.

Ayr United 19s 3 Airdire 19s 5

THE 19s suffered their first defeat of the season at Prestwick Academy after squandering a host of gilt edged chances.

Ayr dominated the early encounters and it came as no surprise when the home side opened the scoring on 25 minutes. A defence splitting Crawford pass found Moore who drove in on goal and fired into the net.

In true football fashion, a team are at their most vulnerable when they have just scored and the Ayr lads found this out to their cost, losing two goals in the next seven minutes but despite this setback Ayr started the second half strong again and had further goal scoring chances through Paterson, Moore, Connolly and Crawford.

However the home side were caught on the counter attack, finding themselves another goal down when Airdrie broke up the park and scored their third..

Ayr's next opportunity fell to Moore and when he rounded the keeper he was brought down for a penalty, picking himself up to convert to make it 2-3.

The home side's domination continued with Baird, who drove in from the right beating three opponents before setting up Connolly, who saw his shot saved by the keeper but Airdrie countered once again to score their fourth and regain their two goal advantage on the 71 minute mark.

Connolly was again troubling the Airdrie defence and when a good run into the box saw him upended, Ayr's Moore stepped up to convert the spot kick for his hat-trick.

But as the home side pushed for an equaliser, Airdrie grabbed a fifth on the break to seal victory.

Coach Stevie McMillan said after the game: "The result was a disappointment but the performance on a whole wasn't. We created over 30 chances and hopefully the boys will learn a lot from this game, knowing that offensively they

need to be more clinical and defensively, they need to be stronger. There were many good individual performances today, especially Dale Moore who got a well deserved hat-trick for his all round workrate and performance."

The 17s meanwhile returned to league action and had to come from behind to defeat Queen of the South at the windy Prestwick Academy.

Ayr had started sluggishly and after losing an early goal started to pick up their play with some slick passing and attacking penetration that soon bore fruit. After a through ball from the on form Lockhart, Forsyth found himself clear and equalized for the home team.

Lockhart, himself, had three opportunities in the 54th minute alone, all just floating past the post but his assistance in setting up goals was soon to pay off as he played in a cross for Forsyth who brilliantly dummied, leaving the ball for Hutchison who fired in, giving Ayr the lead.

Ayr's third came only one minute later as once again, Lockhart played in a cross, this time for Milligan to blast home form eight yards out

Jack McClymont saved the best for last, as he curled in a superb free kick, right into the top left hand corner of the net to give the Ayr lads a well deserved victory. There were some excellent defensive performances from Marshall, Muir, Marlow, Hawkshaw and Kinniburgh to keep Queens at bay and afterwards manager Allan Paul said: "The players started a bit nervous and when they lost the early goal, they seemed to have the wind knocked out of them. However they bounced back well and clearly dominated the second half and never looked like losing after we had equalized."

Ryan Stevenson was an interested spectator as the 16s travelled to Heart's Training Complex at Heriot Watt University for what was an entertaining match that had plenty of chances for either side to win.

Fraser's late first half goal gave Ayr the lead but Hearts equalized in a second half littered with scoring opportunities. Ayr keeper Clark was in inspired form, and secured a point when he saved a penalty and the rebound in the final minute of the match.

Coach Davie White said: "This was an excellent match for the players to be involved in and they showed that as their willingness to get involved in all aspects of attacking and defending during the game shows they have a great team spirit."

Neil Duffy's 15s had to overcome an over physical Cowdenbeath side but eventually ran out clear winners, scoring five times, from five different players.

Nisbet, Fillipi, Ahern, Anderson and Campbell were Ayr's scorers as the young Ayr players dominated the match from start to end but the visitors' heavy tackles and rough play started to tell on Ayr's players, with the physic seeing more pitch time than some of the players.

Coach Duffy said: "It was a terrific performance from the boys and they held their nerve near the end in difficult circumstances and that must have pleased the watching support."

Finally the 14s had to score three late goals to come from behind and win against Stirling with McKenzie scoring all three in an evenly matched game.

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