United boss Lee Bullen has urged his Honest Men to rediscover a killer instinct in front of goal when they travel to Cappielow for this weekend’s Scottish Championship ‘six pointer’ with Greenock Morton.
Bullen was left frustrated after his troops failed to land a glove on Dick Campbell’s Arbroath during Saturday’s slender 1-0 defeat at Gayfield.
United’s afternoon looked promising, especially in the first 45, but they failed to take advantage in front of goal- and it cost them.
Now Bullen has challenged his side to box clever in Inverclyde this week, as they seek to haul themselves away from relegation play-off danger.
Bullen said: “We’re now entering a six-game season and the next game becomes bigger than the last and we know that.
“Morton have been on a good run since Dougie Imrie came in and he’s fashioned a solid looking unit there who can play some good football.
“They managed to grind out a 1-1 draw with Dunfermline and they put in a power of hard work on Friday night.
“But it’s up to us to try to deal with what they bring to the game and find ways in which we can overcome that and, at the same time, pose a bigger threat in the final third than we did at the weekend.
“At Arbroath on Saturday, I thought we did okay in some aspects and certainly we looked to score, but in the second half, the disappointment for me was that we didn’t really lay a glove on Arbroath and that’s something we’ll need to look at if we want to win the game.”
Ayr will have to do without the services of forward Sam Ashford following his red card at the weekend.
But defender Markus Fjortoft, red carded in the 3-1 Ayrshire derby defeat to Kilmarnock, could come back into the equation.
Fit again Tomi Adeloye and Ben Dempsey could also make their returns.
Don't miss the latest Ayrshire headlines – sign up to our free daily newsletter here