Ayrshire Derby Suffers a Cold

Friday night saw Youth Initiative side Ayr United 17s continue their friendlies prior to the resumption of the final 3 league games with a tricky tie against Performance level side and county rivals, Kilmarnock 17s.

A large crowd had gathered at a fog covered Prestwick Academy to see the two clash and they weren't disappointed with the quality of play on show from both sides.

Although the match was abandoned after 62 minutes, both sets of coaches were happy to end the match at that stage as the conditions continued to deteriorate and to avoid any injuries occurring, it was decided to end the match.

Even prior to the match, the slippy surface had caused one of Ayr's normal starters, Cammy Marlow, to withdraw when he strained his hamstring in the warm up.

Ayr had an recently released ex Killie player in their lineup as a trialist and he didn't fail to make his feelings known to the visiting coaching staff and players during the 62 minutes, playing hard and showing his ex teammates what they had missed out on.

The game, like many others swung from end to end at times, and other times one or the other team dominated for periods of time. Killie however got off the mark quickest but two excellent save from Ayr keeper James Kinniburgh but Ayr were pressing hard at the other end and went close with a strike, only kept out by the crossbar.

Although Ayr had altered their lineup from their normal starting 11, it didn't deter them from trying to play their normal style of passing football and a great move through the middle to the trialist nearly ended in a goal as he headed the ball down to Adam Forsyth but unfortunately blasted over from only a few yards out.

Both these players again joined forces as Forsyth hit a 20 yard effort that couldn't be held by the keeper and up popped trialist to fire in the rebound from a few yards out and give the home side the lead.

A few moments after the restart Ayr's keeper had to pull of a great save to keep the score as it was and Mark Shankland who has been promoted from the 16's side almost doubled Ayr's lead when he tried lobbing the back pedaling Killy keeper only to watch the ball clip the top of the woodwork and bounce out of play.

Both teams coaches set about their half team talks in different manners, Ayr's praising the players for the effort and result thus far, Killies using Ayr's joy at beating them as a way of geeing up their players.

The second half started in the frenetic way the first had but the fog was started to dampen the ground even more and made the 3G astro like and ice rink. The players were falling with regularity now and it was starting to concern both sets on coaches.

The match continued though for the moment with Shankland from the Ayr side causing and immense amount of trouble for the Killie defence, likewise, the Killie strikers were causing nightmares in the Ayr rearguard.

Shankland had a couple of good opportunities early in the second half to finish the game off but was unlucky to get on the score sheet as he and Deci Milligan had some brilliant pace and vision up front together.

Killie were pushing more into the Ayr half and forced Kinniburgh to make a couple of outstanding saves but the pressure was soon to tell as a strongly hit shot from 15 yards managed to squirm under the body of the keeper and into the goal to equalize the game at 1-1.

Minutes later the performance level side were to take the lead with another low  shot from close range also found its mark giving the away team a lead that would not be caught on the night.

Both sets of coaches were constantly speaking to the ref during this period to perhaps finish the match early due to the conditions but it would not end before the away team added another, partly thanks to the conditions and partly due to some 6 yard box pinball before ending up in the net.

On 62 minutes the ref called it a day with all the coaches in agreement before someone got injured.

Ayr get back to league action next weekend as they face an away match at Livingston. With only 3 matches remaining in their league, Ayr have a great chance of winning their age group title as they have remained unbeaten in league football this season. The matches should have been played prior to the Holidays but adverse weather halted all play.