Ayr United 4
Elgin City 1 (AET)
Scottish Cup (Fifth Round)


Ayr United
4 - 1
(AET)
Elgin City 

Scottish Cup (Fifth Round)
Saturday, February 11th, 2023
Somerset Park
Attendance: 1,819

Goalscorers
Fraser Bryden 
Ben Dempsey (pen.) (94)
Dipo Akinyemi (103)
Dipo Akinyemi (106)
Hester (14)

Team Managers
Lee Bullen
Gavin Price

Starting Eleven
Aiden McAdams
Sean McGinty
Jordan Houston
Patrick Reading
Alex Kirk
Ben Dempsey
Josh Mullin
Jayden Mitchell-Lawson
Reece Mcalear
Dipo Akinyemi
Paul Smith
1 McHale
2 Mailer
5 Dolzanski
6 Draper
3 Cairns
4 McHardy
7 Dingwall
8 Cameron
10 MacEwan
11 Findlay
9 Hester

Bench
Charlie Albinson
Dylan Watret
Kinlay Bilham
Daire OConnor
Nick McAllister
Scott Tomlinson
Mark McKenzie
Sam Ashford
Fraser Bryden
12 Cooper
14 Anderson
15 Antoniazzi
16 Lawrence
17 Allen
19 Dunn
21 Hoban

Substitutions
Fraser Bryden for Reece Mcalear (58)
Daire OConnor for Jayden Mitchell-Lawson (66)
Nick McAllister for Jordan Houston (67)
Mark McKenzie for Josh Mullin (67)
Sam Ashford for Paul Smith (105)
Scott Tomlinson for Dipo Akinyemi (113)
6 Draper for Anderson 108'minutes
3 Cairns for Antoniazzi 113'minutes
10 MacEwan for Allen 82'minutes
11 Findlay for Lawrence 95'minutes

Cautions
None. Mailer
McHardy
Draper

Red Cards
None. None.
Match Officials

John Beaton (Referee)


Photography by SNS Group

Match Report


Ayr United left it late to eventually see off Elgin City and advance into the Scottish Cup quarter-finals.

Kane Hester gave the visitors a shock lead just before the break as they aimed to reach the last eight for the second time.

Fraser Bryden scrambled in a last-gasp equaliser to force extra time, before Ben Dempsey and Dipo Akinyemi added three more between them.

The draw for the next round takes place on Monday.

Reaction & as it happened
Ayr United, fraught with nerves, did well to eventually overcome heroic Elgin, whose lead four minutes from half-time stunned Somerset Park.

And they held on to it - and threatened to extend it - until Bryden poked home an equaliser from point-blank range with just a minute of normal time remaining.

Relief for United, and the nerves were further soothed when Dempsey scored an extra time penalty after Akinyemi was brought down in the box.

It deflated Elgin and Akinyemi made it 3-1 with a calm finish. He then added his second - Ayr's fourth - to tot up a score line which was very sore on the Highland team.

Ayr United manager Lee Bullen: "I think we were about two minutes away from what we would regard as an embarrassing defeat, but the boys stuck at it and got the break when we needed it. Elgin deserve a lot of credit. You see the clock ticking down - we got a bit of luck. All the pressure was on us."

Elgin City manager Gavin Price: "I couldn't be prouder of the players. We didn't want to be the nearly team. We were confident we could do it. The players gave everything. It's heart-breaking for them. It's a cruel game. I thought we created the better chances in the second half. We limited Ayr to very few clear-cut chances."

Match report written by BBC



Squad Statistics (as at February 11th, 2023)


2022-23 All Time
Age
Aiden McAdams (GK) - 6 - 38 -
Alex Kirk20 202202
Patrick Reading23 30 - 953
Jordan Houston23 2111021
Sean McGinty29 262613
Josh Mullin - 198198
Ben Dempsey23 317387
Reece Mcalear20 2 - 2 -
Jayden Mitchell-Lawson - 211211
Paul Smith20 16 - 25 -
Dipo Akinyemi25 31193119
Mark McKenzie (sub)22 2941018
Daire OConnor (sub)25 17 - 421
Scott Tomlinson (sub)17 1 - 1 -
Nick McAllister (sub)22 221351
Sam Ashford (sub)27 251383
Fraser Bryden (sub)18 132253






League Table (as at February 11th, 2023)


Pld W D L Pts
1. Queen's Park 24 13 4 7 43
2. Ayr United 23 11 6 6 39
3. Dundee 22 11 6 5 39
4. Morton 23 9 7 7 34
5. Partick Thistle 23 10 3 10 33
6. Raith Rovers 24 9 6 9 33
7. ICT 23 8 8 7 32
8. Cove Rangers 23 6 7 10 25
9. Arbroath 24 4 9 11 21
10. Hamilton Academical 23 4 6 13 18