Ayr United
Also written as Ayr, Ayr Utd.
The club
Ayr United were founded in 1910 and play at Somerset Park in Ayr, which holds 10,185, of which 1,597 are seated. They are known as the Honest Men, a name taken from Robert Burns' "Tam o' Shanter". The home kit is white with black trim.
Recent seasons
Ayr have been a Scottish Championship club throughout the period. They finished eighth in 2020/21 with 29 points and eighth again in 2021/22 with 39. Their best season of the run was 2022/23, when they were runners-up with 58 points. They fell back to seventh in 2023/24 with 44 points, then finished third in 2024/25 with 63 points from 18 wins, nine draws and nine defeats, scoring 57 and conceding 39; they went out of the Premiership play-offs at the quarter-final stage to Partick Thistle.
The 2025/26 season was a poor one. Ayr finished seventh with 39 points from 36 games, a record of eight wins, 15 draws and 13 defeats, 38 goals scored and 47 conceded. Fifteen draws is the figure that defines the campaign. Scott Brown left the club on 30 March 2026 and John Rankin took over as interim manager from 31 March. Ayr went out of the League Cup in the second round, beaten 2-0 by Partick Thistle, lost the Challenge Cup semi-final 2-1 to Inverness Caledonian Thistle, and were beaten 2-0 by Dundee United in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup. Mark McKenzie and Jamie Murphy were the leading league scorers with seven each; McKenzie, Murphy and Anton Dowds all finished on seven in all competitions. The highest home crowd was 3,253 against Partick Thistle on 4 April 2026.
Honours and landmarks
Ayr have won Scotland's second tier six times, in 1911/12, 1912/13, 1927/28, 1936/37, 1958/59 and 1965/66, and the third tier three times, in 1987/88, 1996/97 and 2017/18. They have never won a major national cup. They were Scottish League Cup runners-up in 2001/02 and Challenge Cup runners-up in both 1990/91 and 1991/92. The Ayrshire Cup has been won 26 times, most recently in 1996/97.
The record attendance at Somerset Park is 25,225 against Rangers on 13 September 1969. The largest crowd for an Ayr match anywhere is 51,158, also against Rangers, in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden Park on 4 April 1973.
Notable scorelines
The record victory is 11-1 against Dumbarton on 13 August 1952. The record defeat is 0-9, suffered on separate occasions against Rangers, Heart of Midlothian and Third Lanark; the dates of those three matches were not established from the sources read.
Head-to-head notes
Ayr do not publish all-time head-to-head records on their own website, and no published all-time record against any 2026/27 Championship opponent was established. Raith Rovers do publish such records in their match previews, but their site refused automated access when checked on 31 July 2026, so nothing was taken from it.
What can be said is recent form against the field. The 2026/27 Championship is Arbroath, Ayr United, Dunfermline Athletic, Greenock Morton, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Livingston, Partick Thistle, Queen's Park, Raith Rovers and Stenhousemuir. Of the eight clubs Ayr shared last season's division with, they finished above only Greenock Morton, Airdrieonians and Ross County, the last two of which have gone down. Partick Thistle, who knocked Ayr out of both the 2024/25 play-offs and the 2025/26 League Cup, finished second last season. Livingston come down from the Premiership, and Inverness and Stenhousemuir come up.
Right now (2026/27)
Gary Naysmith was appointed manager in May 2026 on a three-year contract, moving from Stenhousemuir along with his assistant Brown Ferguson. Chairman David Smith described the appointment as following "a robust process". The move takes Naysmith into full-time football, and it means he now meets his former club twice in the league this season.
The club's own player-news feed lists the summer intake as Reece Lyon on 4 June 2026, Jamie Douglas signing a first professional contract on 8 June, Ross Taylor on 9 June, Kieran Shanks on 23 June, Owen Stirton on loan on 7 July and Leon King on a two-year deal on 16 July. Kenzie Mitchell's loan was cancelled on 28 July. No fees have been published for any of these.
The Premier Sports Cup group stage went as well as it could have. Ayr won all four matches in Group G: 3-2 away to Stranraer on 11 July 2026, 1-0 away to Falkirk on 14 July, 2-0 against Edinburgh City on 18 July, and 4-1 against Alloa Athletic in the final round on 26 July. The Edinburgh City result was subsequently recorded as a 3-0 win after Edinburgh City were found to have fielded an ineligible player. Ayr took 12 points, scored 11 and conceded three, won the group ahead of Falkirk and went through to the second round.
The Championship campaign opens at home to Arbroath on Saturday 1 August 2026 at 15:00. Ayr then travel to Dunfermline on 8 August, to Raith Rovers on 22 August and host Greenock Morton on 29 August.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayr_United_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Ayr_United_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Scottish_Championship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024%E2%80%9325_Scottish_Championship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Scottish_Championship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Scottish_League_Cup https://ayrunitedfc.co.uk/player-news https://ayrunitedfc.co.uk/fixtures https://www.falkirkherald.co.uk/sport/football/gary-naysmith-set-for-stenhousemuir-departure-as-boss-agrees-to-join-ayr-united-8505067 https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/scottish-championship/former-scotland-and-hearts-star-named-new-manager-of-spfl-club-as-appointment-delay-explained-8505195
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.