|
The 2011/12 season is the 115th season of competitive football in Scotland.
The season began with a glorious Gala day friendly against English giants Manchester United with former United player Alex Ferguson bringing his team to Somerset Park. It was the first time that he had visited Somerset Park since his playing days with Ayr United in 1973/74.
It ended up a single 1-0 win for the English champions but nevertheless exhilarating for all who saw it.
The season saw an unusual win for Ayr against lower division opposition in the form of East Stirling in the League Cup, having already beaten Queen of the South in the Ramsdens Cup, albeit losing to Annan Athletic in the next round.
The League Cup however provided Ayr with som excellent wins against higher division opponents such as Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Hearts and St Mirren but losing to local rivals Kilmarnock in the semi final by 1-0.
The league results were similarly up and down and Ayr United found it difficult to get out of the bottom spot for most of the season to Christmas.
A superb win at Queen of the South’s Palmerston Park on 31st March 2012 led the way to Ayr United moving of bottom place and into the relegation play-off zone, consigning Queens’ to automatic relegation.
Keigan Parker secured the divisions goal of the season award for a sensational overhead winner against Dundee on the last day of the season. In fact an Ayr United revival late on almost brought survival, failing by only 4 points.
Draws rather than wins were in the main the culprit for their ultimate failure.
United went on to play below parr in the play-off semi-final and although hopes were raised with a 0-0 away draw against Airdrie United , Ayr lost 3-1 at Somerset Park losing over the two leg tie relegating Ayr to division 2 football once again.
The gloom wasn't over for Ayr as manager Brian Reid decided in May that he wanted a change and stepped down making way for a new man in Mark Shanks.
|
