Today I'm going back 6 years to 2015 and another of my early season trips to bonnie Scotland to visit a football ground or two. This time Martin and I visited Somerset Park, home of Ayr United who were playing Forfar Athletic in the third tier of Scottish football (known as League 1).
We stayed overnight in Stranraer in order to be in a handy position for the following day's excursion to another match in Dumfries and took the scenic road to Ayr up through Ayrshire. En route we passed a whisky shop / museum and it would have been rude not to stop for a quick visit. I was amused to discover that Martin seemed to know far more about the whiskies on display than did the poor chap who worked there! Also en route was a curry house that we stopped and dined at on the journey back to Stranraer - this was rather special because it was clearly an old converted church and was, by far, the strangest place where I have ever eaten a curry!
In the world of football club nicknames, Ayr United must be the kings! Ayr are known as "The Honest Men" which comes from the poetry of Burns and specifically the line "Auld Ayr, wham ne’er a toon surpasses, for honest men and bonnie lasses". I think I can hazard a guess at the nickname of Ayr's ladies side. Sadly the Honest Men, playing in front of just 1,243, fell behind to Forfar (The Loons) who scored a goal through Kevin Allan against the run of play after 26 minutes. Right on half time and Ayr levelled it up through Craig Moore before Alan Forrest gave them a deserved lead on 58 minutes. It was not to last. Into added time we went and, just as Ayr were preparing to celebrate three points, the Loons took advantage of Ayr's failure to clear their lines from a corner and equalised through Michael Travis.
Ayr finished the season in second place in League 1 and thereby missed the one automatic promotion slot from their ten team league. However they were still able to celebrate a promotion through the Play-Offs instead. Meanwhile it was a season of tears for Forfar Athletic who ended up finishing bottom of the table and were relegated to League 2.
CRB Match No. 2048
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