National Cup Success

Ayr United have never faired so well in national cup competitions, having been the nearly men so many time through history.  A run of cup semi-final defeats in both the Scottish Cup and the Scottish League Cup can be found in their past results. 

For Ayr United, however, the world turned in February 2002 when, as a 1st division team,  they beat Premier league Hibernian 1-0 at Hampden Park in the semi-final of the CIS insurance Cup to earn themselves the right to play Rangers in the Scottish League Cup Final on 17th March 2002.  United also managed a Scottish Cup semi-final place that season.  As a bonus they also achieved a Scottish Cup semi-final losing to Celtic one week before their League Cup Final appearance.

Cup Final fever was everywhere to be found in the Ayrshire town and even Rabbie Burns seemed to be celebarting as his statue  in Burns’ Statue Square, Ayr sported an Ayr United scarf in the days leading to the League Cup final in 2002 (picture left).

Cup Final day ended in a 4-0 win for the Glasgow team, a score that was always the likely outcome, but the day belonged to United and the 12,000 supporters who followed them to the match.

The players were given a superb send off at full time by the Somerset Park faithful (pictured here).