MORE than 600 punters turned out to salute fans’ favourite Martyn Campbell on his big day as 10 years at Somerset Park were celebrated.

Although the home side were unable to secure the victory which would have put some fizz in the festivities following the previous weekend’s Raydale Cup success, there were signs of promise . Some of the new signings showed up well, especially in the first half and that bodes well.

However it must be said United, who are looking add to their squad, lacked a cutting edge.

That is something which is clearly worrying manager Ian McCall who said: “It shows you how short of bodies we were that in the last 15 minutes we had about eight 17 or 18-year-olds. We didn’t have a lot of injuries but Alan Trouten and Peter Murphy were injured and Alan Forrest was alsol out. It was a worthwhile exercise in terms of fitness but we must start getting sharper, we were well short of that today. It’s hard to be overly critical as the players have worked really hard. It was a testimonial match but I didn’t really enjoy watching it -I thought we were poor, but it’s still very early.

“We are looking to sign more players and we were missing three key guys. We have made a couple of people offers are waiting to hear from them. We made a couple of other players real decent offers but they have chosen to go elsewhere because it’s financially better but we have no problem with that. I felt Sean McKenzie did well when he came on and Ryan Nisbet had a good game.” Back to the action and Martyn Campbell who took to the field for the main event in front of a 674-strong crowd with children, Rebekah and Ryan, nephew Lewis Burns and nice Kayleigh as the mascots.

And he also realised an ambition of playing alongside Mark for the first time, with the Auchinleck Talbot Scottish Junior Cup winner playing the first eight minutes and looking as if he had never been away from Somerset Park before being replaced by new signing Gerry McLauchlan.

McCall started with two trialists, former Rangers striker Cristiano Kasuka and former Hibs and St Mirren targetman Ross Caldwell.

It was a low key opening and the first chance was carved out by the visitors in 12 minutes when Ruairi Harkin had a shot from just inside the box saved by Greg Fleming. Four minutes later Darren McCauley threaded a through ball to Ian Parkhill, whose shot from 12 yards was confidently saved by the home goalie.

United forged their first opening five minutes later as Robbie Crawford sent a precision pass to Mikey Donald outside the box, but a visiting defender cleared the danger.

Brian Gilmour had United’s best chance of the match so far three minutes later when his 25-yard effort was well handled by visiting goalie Michael Doherty. In 26 minutes new signing Ross Docherty slipped a fine through ball to skipper Nicky Devlin, whose shot from inside the box was deflected wide by a defender.

Home defender Paddy Boyle made a timely goal-line clearance to foil David Ogilby in 29 minutes. The visitors were unlucky in 31 minutes when a strong shot from 30 yards by Rodney Brown glanced just over the bar.

Kasuka was tripped 25 yards out in 36 minutes. The resultant free-kick from Brian Gilmour was blocked by the wall and broke back to Boyle, but the visiting defence cleared the danger.

United came so close to breaking the deadlock eight minutes after the break when Gilmour’s rasping 25 yard drive whistled narrowly wide of target.

Trialist and former Partick Thistle and Queen of the South midfielder Jamie Adams came on replace livewire Donald in 63 minutes and showed some good touches.

Garth Falconer sent a 25-yard shot well over the top in 65 minutes as Coleraine pushed forward. Then at the other end 12 minutes from time a fierce 25-yard shot from substitute Michael Wardrope was tipped over the bar by Doherty.

Fleming made another excellent stop to thwart Brown from 23 yards five minutes from time. However three minutes later the Northern Irishmen sealed the win when Ruaidhri Higgins sent a 25-yard free-kick into the postage stamp corner of the net.

The result mattered little, it was a good workout for Ayr. But they are very much a work in progress and it would be foolish to read anything into this match.

AYR UNITED: Fleming; Devlin (Muir 78); Boyle, Docherty (Wardrope 78); Martyn Campbell (McCracken 74; Mark Campbell (McLauchlan 8); Gilmour, Crawford, Trialist (McKenna 79); Trialist (Nisbet 63)l Donald (Trialist 63).

For the full story see this week's Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald.