HONEST Men boss Scott Brown has hailed rookie shot-stopper Liam Russell after the former Queen’s Park academy star was on top form to keep Morton at bay and earn his first clean sheet of the season.

Jay Henderson’s dubious second half penalty was all that separated Ayr United and Greenock Morton on Saturday, with claims that Henderson had taken an innocuous second touch whilst taking the spot kick.

But Russell was on hand to keep any sort of Ton resistance at a premium as the Somerset Park side dug deep to extend their lead at the top of the Championship and get back to winning ways with a 1-0 home victory.

And Brown hailed the youngster, who was learning his trade in the seventh tier last season with West of Scotland Football League outfit Gartcairn, after the teenager was flung in at the deep end and proved he was able to swim confidently.

(Image: Gary Bradley) “I thought Liam did well yet again," he told the Advertiser.

“He controlled what happened at the back and went long when he needed to.

“The thing is, if you’re good enough you’ll play.

“As it stands just now, we’ve given all three goalies a chance and right now, Liam’s been by far the best.

“He’s the most composed, he’s a good lad, he’s chilled and most importantly he wants to get better.

“He’s got that little bit of personality too, it’s amazing what a wee bit of personality can do in football.

(Image: Gary Bradley) “It thrives through the team and he’s done that really well."

Brown, who signed a new deal last week to stave off interest from Premiership club St Johnstone, added: “I thought we defended as a unit really, really well and it’s possibly the neatest and tidiest we’ve been in the final third at times.

“At times you need to go and grind out results, which I think we did against Morton really well.

“We were a really small team at the end after taking George Oakley off towards the end, and bringing on Alfie Bavidge for a little bit of legs.

“I think every week is a little bit about grinding it out because you’re not always going to have full control of the game.

“Dougie Imrie set his team up well and had a good attacking three in behind Reynolds, who are all really good.

“We knew we had to deal with their quality and the possession that they’d have, and I thought we were compact enough getting much better in the second half.”

(Image: Gary Bradley) Ayr are now three points clear at the top of the league after Falkirk dropped points against Raith Rovers at Stark’s Park, and Brown admits that the prospect of facing a reeling Bairns side takes a slight bit of gloss off his side’s win.

But the manager said the game at the Falkirk Stadium could be one for the ages with two teams going toe-to-toe.

He said: “To be fair, it’s probably a little bit bittersweet the fact that Falkirk lost because now we need to go and face them next week.

“They’ll have their tails up and want to be getting back to winning ways, it’s their first loss of the season.

“They play some great football as well, but when Neill Collins was appointed as Raith manager I knew he’d make them really hard to beat.

“I’ve no idea how that game went but I know that Raith scored a penalty so we’ll look at the analysis and prepare accordingly.

“But we’ll deal with that next week and look forward to a good game between two good footballing sides.”