Ayr United 2
Raith Rovers 0
League (Championship)


Ayr United
2 - 0
Raith Rovers 

League (Championship)
Saturday, August 24th, 2024
Somerset Park
Attendance: 2,928

Goalscorers
Anton Dowds (pen.) (40)
Ethan Walker (90)
None.

Team Managers
Scott Brown
Unknown.

Starting Eleven
31. Harry Stone
32. Dylan Watret
14. George Stanger
3. Patrick Reading
33. Scott McMann
15. Jamie Murphy
17. Jay Henderson
8. Ben Dempsey
23. Marcus Rus
7. Anton Dowds
9. George Oakley
1 (G) K Dabrowski
3 (D) L Dick
4 (D) P Hanlon
6 (D) E Murray
Yellow card 8 (D) R Matthews
14 (M) J Mullin
17 (M) L Gibson (62)
Red card 21 (M) S Byrne (s/o 38)
Yellow card 23 (M) D Easton (62)
26 (M) L Stevenson
11 (F) C Smith

Bench
38. Liam Russel
20. Roy Syla
Mickey Devlin
24. Ethan Walker
2. Nick McAllister
24. Scott Tomlinson
22. Mark McKenzie
16. Jake Hastie
29. Lucas McRoberts
31 (G) A McNeil
16 (M) S Stanton
25 (M) K Montagu
30 (M) J Nicholson
Yellow card 7 (F) A Connolly (62)
24 (F) L Jamieson (62)

Substitutions
Jake Hastie for Jamie Murphy (71)
Ethan Walker for Jay Henderson (78)
Roy Syla for Marcus Rus (86)
Mark McKenzie for George Oakley (86)
None.

Cautions
None. None.

Red Cards
None. S Byrne (s/o 38)
Match Officials

Iain Sneddon (Referee)


Match Report


The Honest Men maintained their three-point lead at the top of the table on Saturday courtesy of a 2-0 win over managerless Raith Rovers at Somerset, extending their 100 per cent record to a fourth game.

Shaun Byrne was sent off for conceding the penalty on 38 minutes that gave Ayr their opener, Anton Dowds converting from the spot for his sixth goal of the season, before sub Ethan Walker made the points safe late on against a Raith side who kept pressing despite being a man short.

Speaking to Ayr’s media team after the match, Brown said: “Raith finished second last season, and you could see why, but I thought our lads were excellent today.

“It’s hard when you go one up and you’re playing against 10 men that are willing to sit in but have good pace on the counter-attack, but I thought we dealt with it really well.”

Walker’s goal came after the winger, who moved north from Blackburn in the summer, replaced Jay Henderson for the final 12 minutes, and Brown said the substitute’s late strike underlined the importance of Ayr’s ‘whole squad’ approach this season.

“Ethan’s been in since the start of pre-season and he’s not had a lot of game time,” Brown said, “but you can see his quality there and his calmness at the end.

“We always talk about the subs that can come on, they can either win you or lose you the game and today – well, to be fair, since the start of the season – the lads have been doing really, really well, they’ve been coming on, they understood the game plan, the work rate, the energy they bring, but also the composure and the goal threat as well.

“There’s no individuals, it’s all about the team effort. We all work for one cause; that one cause is to try and win the game at the end of Saturday, and to make sure we’ve got three points on the board.

“ It doesn’t matter if you start or you don’t, you’re there for your team-mates.”

Match report written by Ayr Advertiser



Squad Statistics (as at August 24th, 2024)


2024-25 All Time
Age
Harry Stone (GK)22 8 - 8 -
Patrick Reading25 8 - 1513
George Stanger24 81423
Dylan Watret17 5 - 8 -
Scott McMann28 8 - 8 -
Marcus Rus21 7272
Ben Dempsey24 7 - 8912
Jay Henderson22 8585
Jamie Murphy34 61458
Anton Dowds27 863920
George Oakley28 8383
Roy Syla (sub)24 6 - 342
Mark McKenzie (sub)24 7 - 16113
Ethan Walker (sub)26 4141
Jake Hastie (sub)25 8181






League Table (as at August 24th, 2024)


Pld W D L Pts
1. Ayr United 4 4 0 0 12
2. Falkirk 3 3 0 0 9
3. Livingston 3 1 2 0 5
4. Queen's Park 3 1 1 1 4
5. Hamilton Academical 4 1 1 2 4
6. Morton 3 0 3 0 3
7. Raith Rovers 3 1 0 2 3
8. Airdrieonians 3 1 0 2 3
9. Partick Thistle 3 0 1 2 1
10. Dunfermline Athletic 3 0 0 3 0