Jamie Murphy scored the only goal of the game as Arbroath crashed to a third consecutive defeat at Somerset Park on Saturday afternoon.
In a match where the Lichties failed to register a single shot on target, Murphy’s late strike was enough for Ayr United to seal a 1-0 victory, their first in the league since January.
An accumulation of yellow cards saw Aaron Muirhead suspended, with the centre back joining Ryan Flynn and Gavin Reilly in dropping out of the starting lineup. Victor Enem, Tom Beadling and Scott Robinson took their places.
After an opening half an hour without any goalmouth action, it was the hosts who had the first real effort when Anton Dowds rose highest from a corner to head the ball into the side netting.
Arbroath reacted well and replied with a shot of their own with Scott Stewart receiving the ball in the box and unleashing a first time shot that he got all wrong and dragged well wide of the post.
The only effort on target of the half wasn’t long in coming either as Ben Summers cut inside Beadling to send a shot arrowing towards the far corner, but Aidan McAdams was able to dive low to his right and parry the ball to safety.
In the second half though, it was one way traffic as the Honest Men began to show some signs of life under new boss John Rankin.
McAdams was called into action just five minutes after the restart with a diving save high to his right to deny Dowds. The Ayr forward followed that up with another two efforts in quick succession, one deflecting just wide for a corner which he again sent goalwards with a powerful header that McAdams did well to tip over the bar.
A couple of yellow cards threatened to disrupt the hosts in a game that was interrupted by a number of fouls, but they did indeed go close again with Murphy only denied by yet another top save from McAdams.
With just under quarter of an hour to go though, the Lichties keeper was finally beaten as the home side’s pressure paid off. Jack Wilkie’s attempted clearance was weak and simply rolled the way of Murphy, who sent a brilliant effort curling into the far corner to secure all three points.
Ayr United: Mitchell; Dick, King (Want, 46’), Holt, McMann; Dempsey, Bannigan; Rus (Watret, 90+1’), Summers (McRoberts, 82’), Murphy (Hislop, 90+3’); Dowds
Arbroath: McAdams; Enem (MacIntyre, 65’), Watson, O’Brien, Wilkie; Cochrane (Mebude, 82’) Beadling (Flynn, 65’); Stewart, Marshall, Dow; Robinson (Reilly, 65’)
Attendance: 1,715
