Ayr United 1 - 0 Kilmarnock: Ayr caution riles Kenny Shiels but Killie dominance pays off

Shiels is a refreshing, if occasionally unfathomable presence on the Scottish football landscape. His determination to avoid the use of cliches – “like the plague” as he memorably observed in his illuminating interview with Aidan Smith on these pages last week – is certainly welcomed by many in the media.

But it was nonetheless curious to hear Shiels, without any prompting, spend most of his post-match analysis on Saturday focusing on the tactics deployed by his opponents in the biggest Ayrshire derby in the fixture’s history.

He seemed to find it difficult to savour having guided Kilmarnock into a national cup final, courtesy of his son Dean’s extra-time goal which finally settled a tense and often grinding contest. Instead, Shiels was pre-occupied by Ayr’s stifling defensive strategy which came so close to taking the game to a penalty shoot-out which the First Division side, with goalkeeper Kevin Cuthbert in such outstanding form, would have strongly fancied their chances of winning.

During his general media conference in the Hampden lecture theatre, Shiels at one point admitted to “digging myself into a hole” as he attempted to clarify that his criticism of Ayr’s approach was not intended as a slight on the efforts of their yellow-shirted players who he had described as resembling “a bunch of daffodils” clustered around their own penalty area.

But in a separate briefing afterwards with daily newspaper correspondents in the adjacent tunnel area, Shiels was in no mood to tone down his condemnation of the game plan set out by his opposite number Brian Reid.

“It’s better for the final that we are in it,” said Shiels. “There is no doubt about that at all. It has to be football that becomes the winner and I’m delighted about that.

“It’s not football what they (Ayr) do, it’s not for me. The team that showed courage won the match today. Courage is about going on the offensive, which is the hardest part of football. That’s what courage is and our boys showed that today. I think Ayr were good enough to win. They have good players. You just have to make them believe that. You have to make them believe they are good and I think they have worked really hard, but they didn’t come out and play.

“If they had come out they could have won the match. They genuinely could have. I’m a football person and football is about trying to work out ways to score goals. To use good tactics, and ingenuity and think about how you can attack.”

While few would contest Shiels’ view that football is best served when a team with superior attacking qualities and a greater sense of adventure triumphs over one relying on a largely negative approach, the game can never realistically be viewed in such simplistic terms.

For Reid, who had already claimed the scalps of three SPL clubs in the tournament, the end would have unquestionably justified the means had his team reached the final by way of penalties.

“It almost worked to a tee,” said the crestfallen Ayr boss. “We came to frustrate Kilmarnock and we reduced them to very few chances. Kenny, to be fair, should keep his opinions to himself, rather than commenting on other teams.

“That’s a wee bit disrespectful and I’m disappointed by that, but he made a few silly comments in the build-up to the game as well, saying our players were not really part-time and so on. He should know better, because he worked as a manager with part-time clubs in Northern Ireland. I was proud of our part-time players today but unfortunately we came up a little bit short.”

It may have been the major factor in the match turning out to be such a poor spectacle for the impressive attendance of just over 25,000 inside the national stadium but Ayr’s defensive discipline was nonetheless exceptional.

They were marshalled brilliantly by veteran central defender John Robertson whose organisational qualities underpinned their success in ensuring Kilmarnock’s dominance of territory and possession counted for very little. On those occasions when the SPL side did find the necessary guile to create openings, they encountered a goalkeeper in Cuthbert who appeared to be in unbeatable form.

The former St Johnstone and Morton man made an extraordinary close-range save to deny Gary Harkins as Kilmarnock cranked up the pressure in the second half of normal time, then matched that contribution by keeping out efforts from Dean Shiels, Manuel Pascali and Garry Hay to force the additional 30 minutes.

Cuthbert’s resistance was finally broken in the 109th minute when, after making another double save to repel shots from Shiels and Paul Heffernan, the ball broke invitingly into the path of Shiels who made no mistake with a firm strike from 12 yards.

The goalscorer made his way towards his father to celebrate the precious goal but manager Shiels insisted the moment held no special resonance because of their relationship.

“I didn’t have any feelings about it being my boy at all,” he said. “I was just delighted when the ball hit the net, because I didn’t think it was going to be our day. But Dean worked hard and had a few efforts at goal, so he deserved it.”

So too, without question, did Kilmarnock.