Scott Brown: How I've learned on the job at Ayr United

-Credit:Alasdair MacLeod/Daily Record
-Credit:Alasdair MacLeod/Daily Record


SCOTT BROWN admits he's had to learn on the job after bouncing back to put Ayr top of the Championship.

The Somerset gaffer and his team had to dig deep after being humbled on a cold night at K-Park in November. There was never any danger of Brown losing his self belief in the wake of that defeat in the SPFL Trust Trophy at East Kilbride.

But with his team badly lacking form, the young manager required to pivot and change course - making a key change to United's system and style of play that has sent them on a run of just one defeat in 12 games ever since.

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Ayr are now one of Scotland's form sides and prepare for the visit of Hibs on Friday night with Brown the newly crowned January Manager of the Month in the Championship. Awards like that, he says, mean little in the grand scheme of his season's goal, but he acknowledges the vast progress made in recent weeks.

He told the Ayrshire Post: "It's lovely to get the award - I never got one of these when I was down south. All I got there was the sack, but I'm not sure you get an award for that! In all seriousness, this is down to the lads for going out and winning games on the park. But for me it's what we do over the course of the whole season that matters and nobody is getting ahead of themselves in that regard. The lads have been on a fantastic run, particularly through January, but now we have to keep going and we have to see how far we can take it.

"The ability to have a Plan B is definitely something this season has taught us. We had to change shape and style after that East Kilbride game and we've showed an ability to jump in and out when required. You learn as you go and from that night on the lads have been fantastic - solid at the back and scoring big goals when we've had to."

Brown's ability to quickly gel and get the most from a group that was almost entirely overhauled in the summer has been impressive - something he puts down to both he and Steven Whittaker's relationship with the squad.

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Brown revealed: "Me and Whitts are quite young as well and can have that bit of banter with the lads and join in training with them now and again. I think they enjoy that side of it. The best bit about working with this group is their attitude.

"But they know there's a white line and once they cross that it means business. They all work extremely hard and are a great group which shows togetherness, whether it's the players or staff. We don't have the biggest budget in the world and that's why we always make sure the ones we bring in are the good people as well."