Ayr United 2-0 Partick Thistle

Lawrence Shakland scored twice against Partick Thistle

Prolific striker Lawrence Shankland fired Ayr United to a dream start back in the Scottish Championship as the defeated relegated Partick Thistle.

The 22-year-old notched his eight and ninth goals of the season - and his third in two games against Thistle - to fuel more speculation that his future could soon lie away from Somerset Park.

Dundee have contacted the Honest Men about Shankland, who scored a penalty and then netted another ruthless strike from eight yards.

Ayr, last season's League One champions, have won all five of their competitive games this season, scoring 14 times and only conceding once.

There was confidence in every department against a Thistle side they had beaten by the same scoreline in the League Cup last weekend.

Jamie Adams and Michael Rose were pillars at the back, Robbie Crawford and Andy Murdoch used the ball intelligently in midfield and Michael Moffat and Shankland linked well up front.

Over and above that, Daniel Harvie, Alan Forrest, Declan McDaid and Andy Geggan operated positively on the flanks.

Thistle had six new signings in their starting XI and, even though the new look side had a largely encouraging cup group stage, they struggled to recover from the early goals conceded.

Slater had their best chance on the stroke of half-time, when Ayr goalkeeper Ross Doohan touched his long-range strike round the post.

Match reaction

Ayr United manager Ian McCall: "Robbie Crawford is the best kept secret in Scottish football.

"He's as good as Shankland in a different way. The boy is absolutely outstanding and great to watch.

"The Thistle defence just couldn't handle Lawrence. He's destined to go to bigger things, but he's here for this season."

Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald: "We've given them two goals. The game wasn't over, but the game-plan was out the window - we gave ourselves a mountain to climb.

"We only had four subs because we had a call-off with illness this morning - we had two suspensions and another injury.

"But, yes, we're still short and we need quality, as you saw today."