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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Stuart Wilson

Ayr United boss Lee Bullen keeps feet on ground as Honest Men go top of Championship

Lee Bullen watched Ayr go top of the Championship at Cove - then predicted their journey to the top is only just beginning.

United were imperious as they dominated at the Balmoral Stadium and maintained their unbeaten start to the league season.

The win sent The Honest Men to the summit but Bullen insists nobody at Somerset will be getting carried away by their early exploits.

He said: "We are three points closer to safety - three points closer to the 40 point mark.

"We will reassess as things go along. But people have to remember we are a football club who has spent 11 of the last 18 seasons in the league below.

"So we've got to understand where we are. We are on the beginning of a journey with the chairman, Graeme Mathie myself and a lot of new players.

"Our feet are firmly planted and we know where we want to go."

Ayr should have been out of sight long before Ben Dempsey's penalty and Dipo Akinyemi's fourth of the season put them in control after half time.

A consolation Jamie Masson penalty deep into stoppage time took the gloss off the scoreline, but there was no hiding United's dominance against a Cove side who hadn't lost a league game at Balmoor in 15 months.

Bullen said: "We could have been four or five up and were missing gilt edged chances.

"But that was due to our fantastic play, particularly in the first half when I thought we were outstanding.

"We got our just rewards with the two goals and the only disappointment is we didn't score more and couldn't get the clean sheet.

"The fans were absolutely outstanding and the lads really fed off them. All round it was a brilliant day and we go down the road a happy bunch."

Bullen had made a big pre-match call by benching skipper Sean McGinty and handing a first league start to Alex Kirk.

But the Arsenal loan kid answered the call with an impressive display at the heart of a United defence that rarely had to break sweat in the sunshine.

Ayr started well and never looked back with Akinyemi rattling the bar early on before ref Scott Lambie waved away loud penalty appeals for a foul on Sam Ashford.

Ashford then thought he'd scored with a header which was dug out on the line before Akinyemi and Mark McKenzie flashed efforts over the top as Ayr battered the Cove goal.

United got a scare on the stroke of half time when Dempsey was needed to clear a Robbie Leitch effort off his own line.

But Ayr came roaring back out in the second half and after McKenzie had missed a glorious chance, they finally got the breakthrough from the spot.

Great work from Daire O'Connor won the award when his driving run and cross was handled by Mark Reynolds and Dempsey slotted home from 12 yards.

The lead was doubled soon after when Ashford did brilliantly to fashion space and dig out a cross to the backpost where Akinyemi was on hand to knock home his fourth in four games.

That afforded Ayr the chance to introduce new boy David Bangala from the bench to a heroes' reception from the travelling support.

And the only blot on United's copy book was the last ditch penalty conceded by Jordan Houston which Masson converted.

Cove boss Jim McIntyre said: "I thought Ayr bossed the game. They won nearly every one of their individual battles and that’s not good enough from our point of view.

"We were lucky the scoreline was what it was."

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