Yesterday at Hampden Kilmarnock and Ayr United did their best to provide an exciting League Cup semi-final. It is a pity that the most exciting thing about the day was the post game views expressed by Killie manager Kenny Shiels. He felt that Ayr United disrespected their fans and his side in the way they played for the 120 minutes of the game that went to extra time. I cannot argue with him that Ayr did not offer much of a threat as an all-out attacking side. However, football is a game of attack and defence and you should not berate a side that delivers a fantastic performance of the skills required to protect their goal. Killie were, as an SPL side, expected to win the game. However, despite attacking for 110 minutes, the Rugby Park men failed to break down the Honest Men from Ayr. My notes from the game barely covered a single side of A5. It was not that my hands were too cold to take out of my pockets, it was just that Killie did not show enough enterprise to make the Ayr defence panic. Sure, United filled their half with yellow strips but it was a controlled defence with no need for heroics of goal-line clearance proportions. The Ayr supporters were not looking or sounding worried and out sung their Killie counterparts for the majority of the game. The gap between the banks of Untied supporters at the East end of the ground added a interesting echo to the chants they swapped with each other. I would be interested to hear some of their views on Shiels post game comments. Ayr United had beaten three SPL sides on the way to Hampden by employing the same tactics as shown yesterday. Why change a winning formula would have been in Billy Reid's mind as he prepared for the game. However, Shiels had other views on how the semi-final should have been played. He said: "Football is about two teams going out to win a game. Today there was only one team trying to do that. I'm delighted for the players because they stuck at it and were patient. It (the 1-0 win) was thoroughly deserved.It was a fantastic performance. They came for penalties and almost got there. Football is a game that should be played with expression and we showed great courage, we attacked for the whole game. When they come out they look as if they can play. I wish they had done that more. If they had come out, it would have been a better game. The Ayr players deserve so much credit for their work rate and how much they put into it. But I think if they had come out they could have won the match and maybe that's a lesson for them." Shiels should perhaps consider that respect works both ways. Telling a coach whom he has just beaten how he should have deployed his team sounds disrespectful to me. Ayr United do not have the resources or quality of players available to a full-time SPL side. The fact that they worked hard for each other; never looked like panicking in defence; had a man of the match performance delivered by Kevin Cuthbert in the United goal and kept Killie at bay for the majority of the game looked to me like they played the game the right way in the circumstance they faced. Killie's winning goal came after Cuthbert had made two stunning saves from Deal Shiels and Paul Heffernan in the same attack before Shiles junior beat the prostrate keeper. Tactics change depending on which team you are facing. The United tactics worked against three SPL sides before and almost worked against Kilmarnock.
Billy Reid was not pleased when he heard about his Killie counterparts comments. I am sure the majority of managers hearing something similar about their side would echo Reid words. He said: "Kenny should keep his opinion to himself, he should worry about his own team. I think that is disrespectful and I am disappointed in that. He made a few silly comments in saying that we are full-time when we are part-time so I don't think he should be saying these things. I started and finished my career part-time. There is a major difference in the time you get to spend with your players. We have two nights per week with an hour and a half each night, we don't have the luxury of video analysis and working on shape. He should know better because I think he managed part-time clubs. What we certainly didn't want to do was lose an early goal and then have to chase the game. And to be fair people wouldn't have been saying that if we had won the game on penalty kicks. What we did almost worked to a tee but unfortunately we came up short in the end." I think any post-game comments from Shiels senior in the future will be closely watched by all. Could be interesting times ahead.
Source: FOOTYMAD
