Ayr United shattered Ross County's 12-game unbeaten streak - aided by a series of goalkeeping howlers by Allan Creer. The County No.1 was embarrassingly at fault for two goals and on several other occasions as the league leaders' air of assurance evaporated.
The young goalkeeper's worst moments were cringe-worthy, but it was a bad night all round for the hosts despite a second-half fightback. It was only Derek Adams' fourth defeat in six months in charge, but a major boost for the visitors in the relegation fight.
County dictated play early on but their early control was spectacularly undone. After 23 minutes, a Ryan Stevenson shot was spilled by Creer but stabbed over the bar from just a few yards by Alex Williams.
Seven minutes later, Gareth Wardlaw strode in from the right to angle a shot through Creer's body at his front post, with the keeper suspect.
Within 50 seconds, Ayr were two up. Stevenson struck a post but Williams was in sharply to tuck away the rebound.
County tried to find a reply before the break, with a curling Sean Higgins' free-kick smacking the post. The porous home defence was posted missing again on half-time, when Stevenson strike the third.
Creer's night got worse five minutes into the second half as Ayr scored the fourth. Stevenson fired a tame 25-yard shot at the 21 year-old keeper but the ball squirmed through his hands. Higgins replied after 62 minutes when he powered a shot into the roof of the net and Michael Gardyne tucked away County's second with 13 minutes left.
Ross County Creer; Miller, Boyd, Keddie, Moore (Scott 67); Lawson, Dowie; Strachan (Gardyne 60), Higgins, Shields (Gunn 60); Barrowman. Subs: Bullock, Scott, Winters. Booked Boyd, Lawson
Ayr United McGeown; Forrest, Henderson, Campbell, McGowan; Stevenson, Weaver, Keenan, Easton (Anderson 72); Wardlaw (McLeod 78), Williams. Subs: Stewart, Robertson, Vareille. Booked McGowan, Weaver 47, Keenan
Referee C Charleston>br>
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article