Lawrence Shankland hails Michael Moffat for goal king's Ayr United golden years

Lawrence Shankland ran riot during almost two years as an Honest Man.

But the former Ayr United goal king reckons he'd have been half the player at Somerset if it wasn't for Michael Moffat.

The pair were unstoppable as Shankland went on to hit an incredible 63 goals in 74 games in the black and white.

However, Shankland insists he owes just as much credit to the craft of Moff for helping set his career back on track.

The Hearts hitman is back in town this Saturday night along with former Ayr teammates Andy Geggan and Steven Bell as the trio take part in a Moff Testimonial Night at the Bellrock Bar.

Shankland told the Ayrshire Post: "I'll always look back on that time of my career with great memories.

"Sometimes you stumble across people in football and you have a telepathic understanding - and it was like that with me and Moff.

"Along with Moorey [Craig Moore], the three of us played with a freedom and just felt like we could score for fun.

"Moff was the perfect foil for me - I actually couldn't have hand picked a better strike partner.

"For a smaller guy he was always very good in the air and if he went short, I'd be on my bike in behind and we just worked so well together.

"When you're in any strike partnership you need to have the other guy on the same wavelength and Moff was brilliant for me in that regard."

Shankland's career had looked in danger of hitting the buffers before his resurrection under the shrewd guidance of Ian McCall.

Ayr hit more than 100 domestic goals en route to the League One title in 2018 before flirting with a Championship title bid the following season.

The likes of Shankland, Alan Forrest, Luke McCowan, Michael Rose and Danny Harvie were all included in the 'golden age' group.

Shankers, 27, added: "It was