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Scott Brown admits shot shy Ayr were a hard watch as they let Queen's Park off the hook. The Honest Men couldn't convert any of their 27 efforts on goal as the 10-man Spiders held on for a point. Henry Fieldson's ninth minute red card looked to have set the stage for a United at Lesser Hampden. But Brown was left lamenting the lack of a cutting edge as his side failed to turn their dominance into three points. He said: "We've had 27 shots...eight of them on target...and we score zero goals. That tells you everything you need to know. "It's not a case of saying it's one of those days. We lacked the belief to go and score a goal, particularly the longer the game went. "We just started crossing balls into their two giant centre halves who were happy to head it all day long. "Listen, if we score we go on to batter them, but our finishing was very, very poor. A lot of our shots were from 25 yards and we showed no composure. "We played into their hands. The bottom line is we had more than enough chances to win the game and that's the really disappointing thing. "You could see some of the lads feeling sorry for themselves when it wasn't happening for us, but that's when you need big personalities out on that pitch - people who are willing to take responsibility. "We had to rest Ben (Dempsey) today and he's a huge miss because you can see the tempo steps up when he comes off the bench. "We'd be devastated if we weren't creating chances in a game like this but a lot of them were going straight into the goalie's hands. "We've had more than 70 per cent possession and that really means nothing to me because it was us playing around them all the time and not making the right decisions in the final third." Ayr had made three changes from the defeat at Partick Thistle as Dylan Watret and Stuart Bannigan came in, while Anton Dowds made his first start in more than a year. And they were almost in front within minutes as Watret crossed for Dowds to head off the post. Then came the game's big moment as Spiders full back Henry Fieldson was shown a straight red for a late lunge on Watret with the contest just nine minutes old. Ayr took time to assert from there, with the hosts content to sit in and frustrate, but United hit the woodwork again just before the half hour when Mark McKenzie nodded off the post. Scott McMann and Jamie Murphy went close within 60 seconds as Ayr upped the tempo before Dowds headed a Murphy cross over the bar. Watret then drew a great save from Spiders stopper Calum Ferrie as the first half drew to a close. Ayr continued to pour forward after the interval and Kevin Holt had a header cleared off the line by Louis Longridge as they knocked on the door. Dowds sent a header straight at Ferrie after being picked out by a brilliant Rus ball as United's frustrations grew. Brown turned to his bench for inspiration, with Dom Thomas and Curtis Main sent on to freshen up Ayr's attacking options, but it was Queen's who almost sprung a shock at the other end. United needed McMann to bail them out with a last ditch tackle on Seb Drozd as the Spiders man bore down on goal. Ayr's last chance fell to Thomas, who drew a brilliant save from man of the match, Ferrie, as the keeper tipped wide his curling drive from outside the box to earn his side a point.
