Queens Park 14s v Academy 14s
The academy 14s made the short trip to Glasgow to take on Queens Park and it was Queens who started the brightest and after missing a somewhat dubious penalty they went ahead. A pass behind Ayr’s back four was played across the six yard box by the left winger and slotted home by the striker despite a valiant effort by Ayr’s keeper Greg Connor. Ayr then settled and started to take the game to Queens. A Dylan Robb pass set up Kieran Balfour for a 25 yard strike which was on target until the Queens defender managed to deflect it wide.
Unfortunately Ayr lost their first player to a serious injury when the Queens defender totally mistimed his tackle and his follow through left Ryan Spiers on the ground nursing a sore leg along with a bad wrist injury. Ryan had to be replaced by Jamie Martin and it was Jamie who created the next chance when he controlled a bouncing ball in the Queen’s penalty area and his volley was well saved by the Queens keeper. Shortly after a good through ball set Jamie off down the left wing and after skipping past two defenders his dangerous cut back was scrambled clear with several Ayr players waiting to tap the ball in.
Ayr suffered another injury when Fraser Patterson was caught late by the Queen’s attacker and he was replaced by Callum Ogston.
The Ayr boys had done well to recover from a slow start and their improved performance continued into the second period. Jackson Sivewright was lively upfront and he did well to create space in the box and his pass to Jamie was cut out at the expense of a corner. From the corner the ball fell to Will Graham and his volley went narrowly over. Stuart Gray (pictured) was having a good game at right back and as well as closing down the left winger he was always looking to get the ball and create moves from the back.
Against the run of play Ayr gave away another penalty however keeper Taylor Davidson made a great save.
Just when Ayr were hoping to get back into the game they were caught with two quick attacks down the Queens right hand side. The first was expertly finished by the striker however the second looked well offside but unfortunately the referee didn’t give the decision. Ayr battled away but were unable to create any further good changes in the second period.
The third period started with a serious looking injury to Kieran. After intercepting a ball in the right back area he drove forward and beat two Queen’s defenders however the third Queen’s defender made no attempt to play the ball and Kieran landed heavily on his knee and he had to be carried off.
This led to another reshuffle of the Ayr formation and it seemed to knock Ayr out of their stride. They failed to create any further decent opportunities in the third period and conceded another two goals.
Ayr will have learned today that they need to match teams physically and players will need to be brave and continue to demand the ball even when things aren’t going well for the team. However the boys look forward to the arrival of Falkirk next week.
