Josh Mullin admits he was ready and raring to grab his cup chance at Morton on Thursday night.
The winger, who joined Ayr on loan from Livingston last month, made his first start at Cappielow in the SPFL Trust Trophy defeat.
And he insists United's form has meant a waiting game for his opportunity.
Mullin, who scored in the 1-1 draw in Greenock, said: "I knew when I came in it was a team that was winning.
"My first involvement was up at Morton in the league when the team won that day, so I knew I'd have to work hard to get my chance.
"Hopefully by starting here and scoring I can push on now.
"That's what I want to do, I want to be scoring and creating goals and when called upon that's all I can do for the team."
Both sides were left infuriated by ref Craig Napier as he sent three players off in a tie that unravelled in the final 20 minutes.
Mullin said: "I thought we were in control of the game but it got away from both teams with the decisions.
"But we can take the positives from how we played for long spells and in the second half last week at Raith.
"We had a positive mindset and were here to win the game before the lottery of penalties.
"We now have a good chance to hit the reset button ahead of some big games in the league."
Head coach Lee Bullen added: "The game was ruined and became a farce with the red cards but there was a lot of pleasing stuff before that.
"It was a worthwhile exercise for us to get minutes into a lot of players who needed it and we get a nice wee break now before a big game against Inverness next week."
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