Ayrshire Cup Preview

The first ever Scottish League meeting between the two at Kilmarnock ended in a 1-0 1st Division win for Ayr on 13th September 1913. The following season United recorded a 2-1 victory as Killie struggled to find that first league win against the Honest Men. In fact Ayr recorded 1-0 and 2-1 wins in the next two seasons and so Killie had to wait until 1st September 1917 to record a historic 2-0 win.

Honours were even into the early 20's right up to Ayr's relegation at the end of season 1924/25 - a season that saw a 4-1 win for Killie. When Ayr regained their senior league status in season 1928/29 United were at it again winning 2-1 on 24th April 1929. Killie won the Kilmarnock Charity cup final 2-0 against Ayr in a replay after a 1-1 draw, both games at Rugby Park. The big scores were out during season 1935/36 when Killie won 7-2 at home on 2nd February 1936 (although United won 7-0 at Ayr later in the season).

Success for Ayr continued after the war years into the 'B' Division matches winning often such as their 2-0 win in 1948, 1-0 in 1950 and 1-0 in 1952 and a suberb 3-0 win on 1st January 1954. Ayr's years in Division 2 suspended action in the late 1950's save for Ayrshire Cup Action. In that competition Ayr had a heart warming 3-0 on 19th April 1961 and again in 1965 by 1-0. When 1st Division action resumed United did not fair so well.

On 11th September 1971 the two sets of supporters again bellowed their taunts to the opposition at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock. The Ayr United support never consider Killie's success in obtaining silverware like the league title and Scottish Cup wins as any evidence that Killie are the better of the two and United's new status as an established first division team meant regular league clashes against their age old rivals. Ayr's new signings Johnny Graham from Hibs, Phil McGovern and George McLean were to experience the extra zip of an Ayrshire derby for the first time. But it was Ayr stalwarts Alex Ingram and Dougie Mitchell from the penalty spot who gave Ayr a 2-1 win.

Ayr repeated their one goal win almost a year later on 9th September 1972 when super striker Alec Ingram made the difference between the two teams.

The advent of the Premier league in 75/76 saw the two in different divisions, but this time it was Ayr with the upper hand playing in the new senior league whilst Kilie failed to reach the top ten. Ayr won the 1975 Ayrshire Cup 3-0 at Rugby Park.

The first Premier League match to be played at Killie occurred on 30th October 1976 - a 6-1 win for the home side. United recovered to win the second match there on 12th March 1977 by 1-0, a score which aided Killie's relegation at the end of the season. The next league match was a 1st Division match, won 1-0 by Ayr on 4th November 1978. United won a league match next in 1986 and then came a skol cup win 20th August 1986 when the Honest men won 1-0. Further 1st Division battles were ding dong affairs with honours being in the main even. Even Ayrshire Cup matches of the time were going to extra time and penalties as happened on 20th October 1993 when Killie won 3-2 on penalties after a 3-3 draw in ninety minutes.

On 20th March 1993 the First Division match ended Kilmarnock 1 - 1 Ayr United, with Ayr's goal coming from a Traynor corner which came off the bar and Tommy Walker poked the loose ball over the line from a few yards out. Just Tommy's sort of range... Skilling netted the equaliser and the points were shared.

All was not success at Killie and on 29th January 1994 Kilmarnock won a 3rd round Scottish cup tie 2 - 1. McSkimming scored the opener and then Hugh Burns displayed a bit of wing magic before crossing for Stevie Bryce to equalise with a diving header beyond Geddes. Waddell took over in the second half and gifted the vermin a place in the 4th round when he adjudged that Shotton had fouled the vertically-challenged McSkimming in the box and Black scored what proved to be the winner from the penalty spot. Painful, but revenge was to be so sweet. This match was significant because it was to Killie's last national cup win (home or away) against Ayr for some time to come, typified by Ayr's 1-0 win in the Coca Cola 2nd Rnd match on 13th August 1996.

Due to the clubs being in different divisions the clubs didn’t meet for sometime until the Ayrshire Cup was revived as the West Sound Trophy in 2003. The first meeting under this guise was held at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock on 11th October 2003 when Killie won 1-0.

So can United record another victory in North Ayrshire on Saturday? - the record would suggest otherwise, but anything happens in the cauldron of an Ayrshire derby.