AYR United full back Nick McAllister says that both the players and manager Scott Brown were “proud” of their performance against Rangers.

But  he admitted that the must now take the positives from their Scottish Cup showing at Ibrox into the remainder of their league campaign or it will all be in vain.

The Honest Men put in a gutsy display in the 2-0 defeat at Ibrox, attracting plenty of plaudits for how they faced up to Phillippe Clement’s side.

McAllister commented: “We came, we played our way - obviously we need to sit in, you’re playing against a good side, but we played with the ball and moved it well.

“For a lot of us it’s the first time we’ve played in front of 45-50,000, and you need to be brave when you come to these places.

“I thought we were. We played a lot of young boys, and I thought we really held our own.”

It was a near perfect execution of manager Scott Brown’s game plan – with only goals and a win missing from their performance.

And though an Ayr victory would have been considered a major shock, McAllister says the players were still disappointed to leave with nothing to show for their efforts.

Ayr Advertiser: Ayr done well to stifle Rangers for large parts of the match.Ayr done well to stifle Rangers for large parts of the match. (Image: Steve Welsh/PA)

He commented: “Before the game [the manager told us] to be brave, like we do in training. It’s the way we’ll get out, it’s the way we’ll break them down.

“[He told us to] go and enjoy it, try and silence the crowd if we can and get them to turn against [Rangers].

“The way he wants us to play is more front-foot football. I thought the times we had the ball we showed composure, done well, and that’s what the gaffer’s tried to instil in us.

“We’re all gutted with the result. When you come to these places you want to put on a performance to win, not just for the sake of it.”

Now, the full-back says it is vital that Ayr take the positives from the performance into their league campaigns – as they push from a play-off spot in the Championship.

McAllister continued: “I think the boys are proud of what we did. The gaffer was proud, we just need to take it into the league now.

“It’s all well and good coming and doing it here; we need go do that in the league and really go forward with it.

“The Championship is a mental league. You’re up, you’re down, you’re in, you’re out.

“Last season we were on a real high going into the play-offs and the way we went out was really disappointing.

“If we can get there again we want to put in a better performance.”

It is something McAllister hopes to do for the fans, who turned out in their numbers in Glasgow, who he is “proud” to be playing for.

Ayr Advertiser: Ayr United fans turned up in their numbers at Ibrox.Ayr United fans turned up in their numbers at Ibrox. (Image: Steve Welsh/PA)

He said: “The fans are always brilliant, they’re there no matter what. We’ve been up, we’ve been down, we’ve been everywhere, and they come every week in their numbers.

“Today just epitomises what they’re about, they’re a great support and didn’t stop singing for the 90 minutes. [I’m] really proud to play in front of them.”