Ayr United F.C.

Ayr United
Full name	Ayr United Football and Athletic Club Ltd.
Nickname(s)	The Honest Men
Founded	1910
Ground	Somerset Park; (Capacity: 10,128)
Chairman	Lachlan Cameron
Manager	Brian Reid
League	Scottish First Division
2008–09	Scottish Second Division, 2nd (Promoted via play-offs)
Home colours	Away colours

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Ayr United F.C. are a association football team based in Ayr, South Ayrshire, who play in the First Division of the Scottish Football League, having been promoted in the 2008-09 season. Formed in 1910 after the merger of former clubs Ayr Parkhouse F.C. and Ayr F.C. (the latter being a prior merger of Ayr Thistle and Ayr Academical in 1879), their nickname is "The Honest Men", taken from a line in the poem "Tam o' Shanter" by Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns. They play at Somerset Park.

The club have spent 34 seasons in Scotland's top division altogether, though the last was in the 1977/78 season. The club have been the champions of the second tier of Scottish football on six occasions and of the third tier twice (most recently in 1996/97), but have not won any national cup competitions. The club's most famous and most successful manager is Ally MacLeod, who went on to manage the Scottish national football team. Their current manager is former player Brian Reid.

The club's local derby is with rival Ayrshire side Kilmarnock.

[edit] History

Ayr United were founded in 1910 after the merger of Ayr Parkhouse F.C. and Ayr F.C. Although Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. are also the product of a merger between two clubs, Ayr United are the only senior Scottish League club to have been formed from a merger of two existing league clubs.

The club's honours include winning six Second Division titles (as the second tier championship) and a further two such titles (as the third tier championship), most recently in 1996/97. They have not won any national cup competitions, although they were runners-up in the 2001-02 Scottish League Cup, and in the Scottish Challenge Cup in the first two seasons in which the competition was held: 1990-91 and 1991-92. They have won the local competition the Ayrshire Cup on 26 occasions, most commonly facing fierce local rivals Kilmarnock F.C. in the final. The Ayrshire Cup was last played for in season 1996/97, since when the competition has been suspended.

The club's record scorer in a single season is Jimmy Smith, who scored 66 goals for Ayr in only 38 league matches in 1927-28, which remains the British goalscoring record for a single season. The club's overall record scorer is Peter Price, who scored 213 times in competitive matches for the club between 1955 and 1962.

Former Scottish national team manager Ally MacLeod is regarded as the club's most famous and most successful manager. He led the club on three separate occasions spanning fifteen years, during which his teams recorded a record 214 wins, won two league titles and finished one point short of qualifying for European competition in 1973, when Macleod was also voted as Ayr's Citizen of the Year. More recent managers have also included the current Scottish national team manager, George Burley, and former Scottish League Cup winner with Raith Rovers F.C., Gordon Dalziel. Their current manager is Brian Reid.

Although the club has spent 34 seasons in Scotland's top division, they have played in the second and third tiers of Scottish senior football since the 1977/78 season. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the club established a record of defeating teams which played in higher leagues in cup competitions, including Hibernian, Dundee, Dundee United, Motherwell, Dunfermline Athletic and several consecutive wins over local rivals Kilmarnock.

In 1988, Rangers fan and businessman Sir David Murray offered to buy the club but the club's shareholders rejected the bid by a vote of 60 to 56. Then-manager Ally MacLeod had threatened to leave if Murray's bid had succeeded: Murray went on to become Chairman of Rangers F.C., which coincided with a period of financial growth and league success for that club. During much of the 1990s and 2000s, a period of relative success both in league and cup competitions, the Ayr United Chairman was local construction magnate Bill Barr. After Barr stood down, there were occasional boardroom struggles: the club suffered significant cashflow problems in 2004 and only survived after supporters came together to form The Honest Men Trust. Prestwick-based Roy Kennedy failed to takeover the club in 2005, and his company Kennedy Construction went bankrupt in 2006.

On 24 May 2009, Ayr won the Scottish First Division Play-off against Airdrie United F.C. 3–2 on aggregate to win promotion to the First Division. For season 2009/10, to celebrate the club's centenary, Ayr United will play in black and white hoops, the club's original black and white kit. The away kit will be crimson and gold with blue shorts to reflect the original club colours.

[edit] Somerset Park

Ayr play their football at Somerset Park, Ayr, one of the few surviving traditional stadium designs. It consists of one stand, two covered terraces, and one open terrace. It has a capacity of 10,128. The first match to take place at Somerset Park was between the former Ayr and Aston Villa in a 3–0 victory for Ayr.

During the 1990s the club's chairman was Bill Barr, who owned and managed the company which built modern-style stadiums and stands for several other clubs around the UK. Ayr United also sought - and obtained - planning permission from South Ayrshire Council for a new 10,200 all-seated stadium at Heathfield in Ayr with an associated retail development. However, the Scottish Executive then "called in" the application and reversed the decision in respect of the retail development. Since the club considered this aspect of the proposal necessary to fund the construction, the development did not proceed.^[1]

In November 2006, Ayr United signed a contract with Barratt Homes for the sale of Somerset Park, having secured a 20-acre (81,000 m²) site in the Heathfield area of Ayr. The site would house a new £18 million stadium seating 7,650 as part of a "sports and business campus".^[2] However, following the economic downturn, Barratt used a loophole in the contract to pull out of the project. No alternative purchaser has been identified yet, and the new stadium proposal remains on hold.

[edit] Current squad

No.		Position	Player
		GK	Stephen Grindlay
		GK	David Mitchell
		DF	Andy Aitken ^[3]
		DF	Martyn Campbell (vice-captain)
		DF	Kevin James ^[3]
		DF	Lloyd Kinnaird
		DF	Neil McGowan (under 19s coach)
		DF	Billy Gibson ^[4]
		MF	Chris Aitken (captain)
		MF	Ryan Borris

No.		Position	Player
		MF	Kenny Connolly
		MF	William Easton
		MF	Dean Keenan
		MF	Ryan Stevenson
		MF	Alistair Woodburn
		MF	David O'Brien ^[5]
		FW	David Gormley
		FW	Bryan Prunty
		FW	Mark Roberts

[edit] Recent managers

Name	Years
Frank Thompson	1935–39
Archie Anderson	1949–53
Reuben Bennett	1953–55
Neil McBain	1955–56
Jackie Cox	1956–61
Bobby Flavell	1961
Gerry Mays	1961–62
Neil McBain	1962–63
Bobby Flavell	1963–64
Tom McCreath	1964–66
Ally MacLeod	1966–75
Alex Stuart	1975–78
Ally MacLeod	1978
Willie McLean	1979–83
George Caldwell	1983–85
Ally MacLeod	1985–90
Simon Stainrod	1993–95
Gordon Dalziel	1995–02
Campbell Money	2002–04
Mark Shanks	2004–05
Bobby Connor	2005–07
Neil Watt	2007
Brian Reid	2007–Present