A Season with the Honest Men

By Gerry Ferrara

Behind the scenes at Scottish League One side, Ayr United—in the manager's office, on the team bus and into the dressing rooms of every club they visit

Player pranks, dressing-room bust-ups, flaring tempers, and flying missiles encapsulate the range of emotions as the lads aim for promotion. Team talks, motivational speeches, and post-mortems are all part of the matchday experience in a rollercoaster season. Illegal betting charges against striker Michael Moffat and the outrageous behavior of kit man Alan Kerr are just two of the season's sideshows—while manager Mark Roberts provides a wonderful insight into the loneliest job in soccer. Tension mounts as the business end of the season approaches. Will the Honest Men pull it off and experience the glory that comes with promotion? Or will the campaign end in failure, consigning the club to yet another season in the lower reaches of Scottish soccer?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: Aug 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781909626850

Book preview

SPFL.

Baptism of Fire For The New Boss

WHEN Mark Roberts agreed to take on the role of manager at Ayr United in 2012 he was under no illusion about how difficult his task was going to be. He knew there would be difficult times, challenges, disappointments and periods of self-doubt. There was no red-carpet treatment, no fanfare of trumpets, no wild celebrations when he arrived at Somerset Park as a player in 2009. After all, he was crossing the great divide.

The Ayr supporters have very little tolerance for anyone associated with the dark side of Ayrshire and Roberts, having spent eight years as a player with Kilmarnock, would have a very hard task convincing the Somerset Road End that his recruitment was wise.

However, Ayr fans can also be described as fickle and a good example of this was a similar situation in 1997 when Ayr signed ex-Killie man Andy Millen. There was moaning and groaning about the player joining Ayr but he soon showed a passion and commitment that won the fans over. In the same way, Mark Roberts was not deterred by the underwhelming welcome. He has gone on to become a fans’ favourite, scoring more than 40 goals to date, including a hat-trick of penalties before being sent off in the same match.

The transition from player to player-manager was not going to be a smooth one. Brian Reid’s reign as team manager came to an end after relegation from the First Division, the team having failed to negotiate the play-offs to stave off their demotion. Roberts was viewed by some as a new young manager capable of adapting the team’s strategy to introduce a more attacking style of play. Others offered their negative perception of a rookie boss, too close to the players and of course the regurgitated reference to his Kilmarnock connection.

One man who was confident that Mark Roberts was the right man for the job was the chairman of the club, Lachlan Cameron, and the relationship between the two men has flourished, as Roberts explained, ‘I speak to Lachlan once a week at least. I have a great relationship with him and I consider him a friend as well as my chairman. I think other football club managers would be grateful for the type of relationship I have with Lachlan. I also have a lot of contact with Jim Kirkwood, a director I can talk to about everyday issues. Our system works well.’

The pre-season matches convinced many people that Roberts was the right man for the job. In particular, a 4-0 win, playing some lovely football, against a full-strength Motherwell side that had finished third in the Premier League, was all the encouragement required for a positive attitude to the season ahead.

In the very first competitive match however, it all started going wrong. The expectation of a comfortable win against East Stirling in the Challenge Cup was dashed when Ayr lost 3-1 with a poor performance. A draw and two defeats in the first three matches of the league season saw the favourites for promotion at the wrong end of the table and although the team flirted with a play-off place on and off during the season, Ayr completed the campaign in a very disappointing seventh place.

Some Ayr fans made Mark Roberts public enemy number one while others were prepared to take the view that he now had a season’s experience to build on and he was still the right man for the job.

It’s certainly true to say that Mark learned greatly from the experience of his first season in charge. ‘When I got the job I was thrown in at the deep end. I was faced with working on a limited budget, trying to assemble a squad that would do a good job for me. It also meant telling some players that they were not having their contracts renewed. It was important that I hit the ground running and I don’t mind telling you, the pressure was on.’

I asked him why he thought the early promise, derived from pre-season matches, didn’t come to fruition. ‘It’s simple,’ he said. ‘I signed the wrong players.’ He followed up his frank admission with another, ‘I recruited players that I knew personally and who I thought had the ability to take the club forward. I didn’t take enough account of the characters I was signing and we suffered for that. I put a lot of pressure on myself and there were times that I took the stresses home with me. I’ve always had a winning mentality and when you are the manager picking a team that is losing it gets to you.

‘My biggest fear is failure. I learned during last season that I need players who are strong characters, winners, for the younger players to emulate, to use as role models. Things are a lot better this season. Players like Scott McLaughlin, David Hutton, Alan Lithgow and Kevin Kyle are all winners and it’s making a big difference to the spirit and attitude throughout the club.

‘Another issue I had last season was the difficulty of playing and managing. Ideally Davie White and I would have benefitted from having someone else on board but the finances didn’t allow for it so it was difficult for Davie and me to communicate while I was on the park.

‘Bringing in Andy Millen has given me the flexibility to play without putting Davie under too much pressure on his own on the touchline. Andy has known me since I was 16 and we work well together. Davie has a lot on his plate with his responsibilities as head of youth with the Ayr United Football Academy and this has helped him too. Both Andy and I got a lot out of working with Tommy Burns at Kilmarnock and I do try to introduce some of the things I learned from Tam.’

A New Beginning

I’M speaking to Mark in his office at Somerset Park and he’s in great demand. Every few minutes there is a knock on the door or a phone call to deal with. He takes care of the most basic demands. ‘Do we have a couple of good match balls for Saturday?’ ‘Are you OK for the meeting in 15 minutes?’

He has taken a break from the gym to speak to me and he will soon be off to training, to assess his players ahead of the home Scottish Cup tie against Queen’s Park. I ask him how many hours he dedicates to his job. ‘I honestly think about things in every waking hour. In fact, I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and find it hard to get back to sleep because I’m always mulling over one issue or another. I can be watching television at night when I drift off to thoughts about my team formation and whether or not I should play one player or another.’

Mark receives reports in advance of facing the opposition and he is currently assessing how Queen’s Park will line up and what tactics he should adopt. ‘I expect to see Queen’s sitting in and playing one up front. I’ll try to get the full-backs pushing forward,’ he says. He speaks with an assuredness, with the confidence of a man who has discovered where he is going and judging by their current second place position behind Rangers, it is understandable that he is on a high.

In stark contrast to the 2012/13 season, Ayr started their league campaign with a 3-0 win at Arbroath after which the manager waxed lyrical about the success of the Ayr United Football Academy and the introduction of youngsters such as Alan Forrest. ‘I was so proud when wee Forrest scored with such composure. I am totally committed to a youth policy at the club and Alan is a great example of a player taking his chance.’ It was only four days earlier that Ayr had come so close to pulling off a great result in the Scottish Communities League Cup tie at Firhill against Partick Thistle. The 2-1 defeat saw Mark Shankland score with a late header before driving a shot off a post in a bid to take the tie to extra time but it wasn’t to be.

The youngster recalled his experience when he told me, ‘The Gaffer was ready to come on as a substitute when Thistle scored their second but the other coaches convinced him that I should get a chance. I was just on the park when a cross from the left came over between me and the Partick goalkeeper . I knew I was going to get my head to it first and when the ball landed in the net, all I could think of was getting it back to the centre to try and find an equaliser. I got another chance before the end and the fact is that I hit the ball too cleanly. If I had scuffed it, I think it would have gone in and we may have gone on to win.’

It may have been an early exit from the League Cup and despite the fact that Ayr were also eliminated in the first round of the Ramsden’s Cup in a 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Falkirk, there was no great despondency at the club.

The second match of the league season saw Ayr record a 2-0 home win against Forfar with goals from Craig Malcolm and Michael Moffat, who added to his double at Arbroath, before Stranraer, Airdrie, Stenhousemuir and Brechin all managed to avoid defeat with draws against the Honest Men.

Roberts’s comments on the four draws that saw the club drop eight points from the 12 available were bullish. ‘Of the four matches, Stranraer was the only match in which the team played poorly throughout. We were superior to Airdrie despite the fact that we were reduced to nine players for 40 minutes and we were disappointed with the draw. The Stenhousemuir and Brechin games were both there for the taking and so, we could have been clear at the top with Rangers with a bit of luck.’

It was an unbeaten Ayr who travelled to East End Park to play Dunfermline next but the team left the Kingdom of Fife with nothing after a 5-1 defeat. It was one of those days when everything attempted by the home side came off and despite the fact that Ayr took the lead through Michael Moffat, yet again, a penalty followed by four wonder goals from the Pars left Ayr stunned. Roberts groaned, ‘I spoke to Jim Jefferies after the game and he told me that his goalkeeper had to be the man of the match. We created a host of chances and while we couldn’t add to our tally, Dunfermline had a day to remember with four top quality strikes.’

So it was that Ayr had collected four points from their last five matches and the doubters among the online Ayr ‘support’ were sharpening their knives. There was no time for recrimination though. The circus was coming to town in the shape of Rangers.

There appeared to be realism among the Ayr support that our part-time team, who earn a pittance in comparison to these full-time professionals, would be up against it. So it proved. A decent performance from United saw the teams go in level at half-time but Rangers scored twice in the second half to take the points.

There were positives to take from the match, for the fans and for the club. The cash injection from the inclusion of the Glasgow giants in League 1 has obvious financial benefits as the current economic state of the Scottish game, and its individual clubs, is perilous to say the least. On the playing side, Ayr received a shot-in-the-arm with the excellent performance from a fit-again Martyn Campbell and then there was the sight of a full Somerset Park, rekindling memories of some really good times at the old ground.

The pre-match performance from Somerset Boab certainly got the packed Somerset Road End crowd roaring out the catalogue of songs created by Ayr’s top fundraiser fan. Then he nearly had us all in tears with the Ayr United version of ‘Nessun Dorma’ as a finale. Mark Roberts revealed that Martyn Campbell had trained with the squad on the eve of the Sunday match. ‘I asked Martyn how he felt and he was confident that he could play. As it turned out, the big man had a great game and I was obviously hoping that there was no reaction after the match as we could then benefit from his presence in the matches ahead.’

It was a determined Ayr who travelled to Methil for the next league match and a comprehensive 4-1 victory against ‘The Fife’ got them back to winning ways. Another strong performance from Martyn Campbell was tinged with disappointment however. Roberts told me how the bad news was broken to him. ‘Everything seemed fine after the game but on the Sunday morning I got a text from Martyn asking me if I was in a good mood. I can honestly say that when he told me that he had a broken bone in his foot it ruined my weekend. We are a much better side when Martyn plays and we will miss his physical presence. He has had so much bad luck with injuries and although the current injury is not related to his previous problems, when he gets back to training in three or four weeks, there is a danger that his old injuries might resurface.

‘Bringing in a replacement is easier said than done. Trying to introduce youngsters from the Premiership who don’t have any first-team experience won’t work. They are not ready. We don’t have our troubles to seek at the moment, with young Alan Forrest out for four or five weeks after breaking his hand. It’s one of these things, a header from Jackson Longridge, during a reserve match, caught the wee man’s hand and knocked it back causing the break. It was just a freak accident. It’s a pity because Alan has been really effective as an impact player recently, making a big contribution to matches.’

Ayr’s next two league games, even without the influential Campbell, took the team to three straight wins after a 2-0 victory at home to Arbroath and a 1-0 away success at Airdrie, and moved them up to second place in the table. Of course, it wouldn’t be an Airdrie match without a little controversy. The sending off of Kyle McAusland couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time, further depleting Ayr’s defensive options.

The amateur dramatics exhibited by Airdrie’s Martin Hardie did him no favours and he showed that professional integrity means little to him. Scything down McAusland as he raced through on goal was bad enough but when big Kyle confronted him at close quarters, Hardie decided that it would be a good idea to collapse to the turf, holding his face, feigning injury from an apparent headbutt. It appeared that the referee didn’t fall for the dying swan act but he did caution the Ayr man for his aggressive behaviour and as he had already been cautioned earlier in the game, he was sent off.

What remained a mystery was the treatment of the Airdrie player. The referee decided that the original offence did not deny the Ayr man a goalscoring opportunity, so he cautioned Hardie for his reckless tackle. The opinion of the referee in relation to the alleged headbutt was that it did not happen, therefore it stands to reason that Hardie should receive a second caution for simulation.

The Ayr manager was left fuming. ‘Martin Hardie is a personal friend but I was disgusted by his antics. He deliberately cheated to try and get his opponent sent off and I will be having words with him when we meet.’

Looking forward though, Mark was philosophical. ‘We have lost Martyn and now Kyle but if we can beat Stranraer next week we can start opening up a gap between ourselves in second place and the rest of the pack. The truth is that Rangers aside, there’s a coat of paint between the rest of the teams so it’s important to take advantage of our good form to gather vital points.’

The league positions at 31 October 2013 showed Ayr with 19 points from 11 matches and with second position in League 1 secure for another week, they would take a break from league duty to take on League 2 bottom dogs Queen’s Park in the last remaining crack at a national cup competition, for this season at least, the Scottish Cup.

Joining The Team

IHAVE experienced some really exciting moments following Ayr United all over the country since 1967. I have been from Inverness to Dumfries, from Glasgow to Nottingham and from Kirkcaldy to Leicester but ahead of Ayr’s latest Scottish Cup campaign I was given the opportunity to take my love affair with my team to a new level of intimacy.

I gained permission from Ayr chairman Lachlan Cameron and manager Mark Roberts to access the dressing room for the experience of matchday events unfolding. This was my big chance to find out what managing a League 1 football team is all about and what it’s really like to be an Ayr player at the team talk, half-time review and full-time assessment. I would be free to talk to the manager, his assistants, the backroom team, the players and anyone else I come into contact with throughout the rest of the season.

So, on Saturday 2 November, I made my way to Somerset Park, arriving at 2pm. As I walked in the main entrance and made my way to the home dressing room I was blocked by an official who greeted me with ‘how can I help?’ I was matter-of-fact with my reply, ‘I’m just going into the dressing room, Mark Roberts is expecting me.’

The gentleman explained, ‘You can’t go in at the moment, he’s giving the team talk.’ ‘Yes, that’s why I want to go in,’ I replied. The poor chap looked at me and if I could hear his thoughts it would have been something along the lines of, ‘We’ve got a right nutter here.’ A quick chat about the background to my role and he was very understanding and accommodating.

However, as I approached the home dressing room Mark emerged. The team briefing was over and I had missed it. Lesson number one; arrive earlier in future. I had agreed with Mark a couple of days previously that, once inside the dressing room, I would stay well out of his way and merely observe the interaction from a corner. ‘You won’t be in my way...’ he said ‘...or I’ll just kick you out.’ It was a perfectly reasonable attitude and I couldn’t think of anything worse than disrupting things.

I had doubts about how I would be received by the players but as soon as I entered the room, assistant manager Davie White announced to the players, ‘You better watch yourself boys, Gerry here has got a dictaphone and he’s recording every word you say to put in his book.’

That wee comment made my job so much easier, if only because everyone knew that the stranger among them was supposed to be there. I walked around the room giving and receiving nods to and from the players who were preparing for their pre-match warm-up. Spying Martyn Campbell at the far end of the room, smartly dressed in his flannels, blazer, white shirt and club tie, I decided to make my way over for a quick chat. The big man was very relaxed and when I enquired about his latest injury in a very long list of them over recent years, he seemed disappointed but philosophical.

‘How long do you reckon you’re out for Martyn?’ I asked. He glanced down at his strapped foot and replied, ‘Probably four weeks. It’s a metatarsal break so nothing to do with my previous injuries.’ I asked if he was still able to do some training and he was very upbeat about that. ‘Yeah, I’m still able to work myself hard but running is out of the question. The injury will take the time it needs.’

From the moment I walked into the dressing room Craig Malcolm was pacing the floor, a study in concentration. He seemed oblivious to what was going on around him. I figured, having been chosen to start the match, he was playing things through in his mind, motivating himself and focusing on the job in hand.

The approach of players varies of course and there is a full array of different characters in this team. I caught sight of a few sheets of paper on the wall and as I took in the set-piece diagrams Michael Moffat appeared at my side. ‘Explain what these are all about Michael,’ I requested. ‘Oh, this stuff,’ he said, pointing to one of the diagrams. ‘I haven’t a clue what they’re all about, I just nod when it’s explained.’ The mischief in his eyes was quite apparent. Rightly or wrongly, I was already making a mental note, ‘Moffat... team joker.’

In contrast to the laid-back, comedic Moff, the quiet and ever-so-serious demeanour of team captain Scott McLaughlin was obvious as I joined him. Rock music was blaring out of a speaker just above our heads and I had to raise my voice considerably to be heard. ‘I guess that’s to get the boys motivated ahead of the match Scott?’ I assumed he would see the benefit of it. ‘It would burst your fuckin’ brains, wouldn’t it?’ he replied.

If there was a prize for the person working harder than anyone in the dressing room it would surely have gone to Alan Kerr, Ayr’s kit manager. He didn’t stop for a second in all the time I was in the dressing room. He rushed in and out of the room making sure that everyone had what they needed, be that team strips, water, fruit etc., and clearing up any discarded wrapping before racing off to do more work in the room adjacent to the players’ area.

Michael Moffat couldn’t resist poking a bit of fun his way as he presented ‘Kerrso’ to me by saying, ‘This man here is the third-best kit man in this division.’ The comment elicited a response from the other side of the dressing room when one of the players shouted out, ‘He’s no’ even the third-best kit man in here.’

As a silent Michael Donald went through a range of stretching exercises, Michael McGowan sat on his own, head down, looking really fed up. I wandered over and sat beside him. ‘How’s it going Mikey?’ I asked. ‘I’m not too good to be honest, mate. I’m not in the team again and I really expected to be playing today. I’ve trained hard and I’m putting in extra sessions but I’m still on the bench.’

He obviously wanted to tell someone about his frustration and disappointment but Mark Roberts had made the situation clear to me when we spoke a couple of days earlier. ‘I gave Michael every chance to recover from his injuries and stuck by him when things were tough for him. When he started back in the team he did well. My team and I expected a lull in his form, maybe towards the end of the year, as it’s seldom easy to keep performance levels up for an extended period after such a long lay-off. Our problem is that he is probably experiencing that dip a bit earlier than we expected.’

I was already able to identify the range of characters and personalities among the players and despite the obvious frustration of McGowan, I was getting a positive vibe from the team.

Anthony Marenghi came up to view the set-piece diagrams and I congratulated him on his match-winning free kick at Airdrie. ‘You know we’re expecting one of those rocket free kicks in every game now,’ I said. ‘I’ll try my best,’ he answered with a smile. The players and all the backroom staff were upbeat and focused on the job ahead.

The players were ready to take to the park for their final warm-up and Alan Kerr was shouting loudly, offering rain jackets to anyone facing the torrential downpour that had descended on Somerset Park. ‘If any of you wee girlies need protection from the big, bad rain, there’s plenty here.’

On their return to the dressing room, Mark Roberts gave the team last-minute instructions. ‘Let’s get strikes on goal early and follow up on them. We need to get out the traps flying.’ There were several shouts from players around the room repeating the gaffer’s words and encouraging one another. The referee appeared for the boot check and then it was a clearly fired-up captain Scott McLaughlin’s turn. ‘There’s hardly a crowd out there. We need to make our own atmosphere today. Let’s get the job done.’

Gordon Pope and Michael Donald sat listening, deep in concentration as if to hear something that would aid their performance. Despite the fact that the Scottish Cup match was against the bottom team in League 2, the players were obviously up for it, motivated and eager to get on with things.

As the Ayr team made their way out to the pitch, I managed to get a quick word with Gardner Speirs, the Queen’s Park manager. ‘How are you feeling about your team’s chances today Gardner?’ I asked. ‘I’m looking forward to a good match. I expect it to be as close a match as when we played at Hampden earlier in the season. Mind you, Marko will tell you that they won that easy,’ he laughed.