Ayr United boss says ‘We need the fans back at Somerset park’

Supporters have been shut out of football stadiums in Scotland since March.

At the weekend, two trial games involving Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Ross County and Celtic, saw a small number of supporters allowed back into Premiership stadiums for the first time in over six months.

The Scottish Government set out a timeline which would allow clubs to welcome spectators back into their grounds after September 14.

However, last week Nicola Sturgeon dealt a further blow to clubs, with that date officially put back to October 5. And Ayr gaffer Kerr hopes there’s no more bumps in the road.

He told the Advertiser: “It’ll be brilliant for the club to hopefully have some light at the end of the tunnel from a financial point of view. Obviously for the fans who’ve supported us all the way through the pandemic too.

“Season tickets are on sale as well. People might be holding back to see exactly what it is they’re getting with it. “Hopefully now the guidelines will help people want to commit to a season ticket as it will cover all of our season and even some of the Betfred Cup.

“You would hope that would drum up a bit more interest from fans and it should give the club a bit more leeway on what might be coming through the door.

“Obviously the club have budgeted for not having supporters in the short-term – so anything over and above that is a bonus.”

Kerr added: “We are a bit light numbers wise at the moment, but that’s the way you always tend to start pre-season.

“We’ve not got a lot of trialists in. I know many teams have got 14 or 15 trialists in, along with 10 signed players but that’s not the way we want to do it.

“We’ll probably have a couple of boys in at some point but the players know we’ll be adding to the squad and it will get bigger, stronger and hopefully quality will be added.”

Meanwhile, Jack Baird has penned a two-year deal with the Honest Men after his release from Premiership outfit St Mirren.