The Championship Play-Off Semi-Final between Ayr United and Cowdenbeath is hanging very finely in the balance after Wednesday night’s 2-1 win for the Blue Brazil at Somerset Park.
The Honest Men have plenty to play for and they have a couple of aces up their sleeve as neither of their strikers, Michael Moffat or Craig Malcolm, have fully entered the battle yet.
Moffat has been grabbing goals and headlines all season whereas Malcolm warmed up nicely for Ayr’s promotion push with a hat-trick in their must win game over East Fife last Saturday.
Malcolm is also out to make up for his disappointment in the Play-Offs two years ago when he couldn’t walk away from a painful disappointment as he had broken his leg.
The one-time Raith Rovers player said: “It was really important to win the East Fife game last weekend and it was good for me to get a few goals. It was my first hat-trick for Ayr in fact it was the first time I have scored more than one goal for the team.”
“Some of the boys had been giving me stick for that so it was good to shut them up. I had scored three hat-tricks with Stranraer so I am delighted to be the proud owner of four match balls now.”
The 27-year-old who moved to Ayr from the Blues last summer said: “There was a sense of relief at clinching our place last weekend and we are still in things for promotion despite Wednesday’s result. Last Saturday we did not play well in the first half against a side that were battling for their lives. We are pretty notorious for not starting games well and it took that first goal to settle a lot of the nerves. The second just after half-time really deflated them.”
“To get there was great as for the past ten to twelve weeks it was like no-one wanted to extend their season in the Play-Offs. Dunfermline had a few stumbles before finishing second, Stranraer went 9 games without winning and every time we lost Stenhousemuir and Forfar appeared to lose as well.”
“I don’t think it was nerves on our part in terms of crossing a finishing line it was more a case of not starting games as well as we should have been doing. We would not get into games and go a goal down. We just went through a phase were we would struggle to get back into things but we are there now.”
Malcolm added: “It was good to finally make the Play-Offs and face Cowdenbeath on Wednesday as we had been in the top four all season. However we started slowly in that game as well and were two goals down at half-time.”
The striker is determined his side bounce back and qualify to face the winners of the tie between Dunfermline and his former Stranraer side as he explained: “I have been in the Play-Offs before a couple of years ago when Stranraer faced Queen’s Park at the Semi-Final stage. They had finished second and we had finished third. However they had dominated the games in the league as they had beaten us four times.”
“However we won the first leg 3-1 and won the second meeting 2-0. I scored early in that game and Martin Grehan made it two shortly afterwards and we saw things out quite comfortably.”
Comfortable is not a word that could be used for the Final against Albion Rovers as Malcolm explained: “The final was not as enjoyable and just shows you how things can turn against you in football. We won the first leg 2-0 and looked good for going through.”
“However I broke my leg in the second game and it went to extra time and penalties. Frank McKeown who took my place as the first penalty taker in the shoot-out missed and we lost 5-3 on penalties.”
Malcolm is hoping to banish that bad memory with a win over Cowdenbeath and then a Final success to secure promotion as he explained: “I did not know much about the Cowdenbeath players ahead of that first leg but we went into it knowing that they had very good strikers in Kane Hemmings and Greg Stewart. We now know exactly how good they are as Greg scored two goals against us.”
“However we are also good going forward and Michael Moffat is a great player to play alongside. Even on a bad day he is a danger and they will be wary of him. All we need is a goal to get right back into things at their place and we also have the option of Kevin Kyle who helped set up our goal on Wednesday.”
Will he be the player to score the goal that will turn things Malcolm was asked and he replied: “The hat-trick has given me confidence after an up and down season. I started off by scoring only a couple of goals and then found myself on the bench and also playing in midfield for a spell as well.”
“I got moved back up front quite recently and I am enjoying it again.”
“I have played at Central Park a few times and it is a tough venue and we wanted a positive result for going there. However we are behind now but if I get the chance I would love to score and help us progress. Even if it is just the one goal I am sure that the boys will not be giving me a hard time if it helps gets us through.”
Malcolm has put contract talks with his club for next season on hold until their Play-Off fate is known as he explained: “Everything was on hold until we knew if we reached the Play-Offs and they will remain on hold until we know our fate. It is just one of things and hopefully we can get promoted and then sort something out.”
“Hopefully there will be no discussions next week as that means we are preparing for the Play-Off Final against either Dunfermline or indeed Stranraer.”
“If it is Stranraer I will be hoping that they have more bad luck in the final and I get all the good luck I am due.”
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