Fifty years ago today, a young striker made his debut for Queen's Park and want on to become a legendary name in the game.

Stevie Nicholas would not claim to have made as much impact on the game as his famous predecessor, Sir Alex Fergsuon, but he would at least be hoping for an equally successful debut in the Glorious Hoops. Fergie scored at Stranraer on his debut, and Nicholas was the surprise inclusion for Spiders today against Ayr United.

Gardner Speirs tried to sign the former East Fife striker in the summer, but Nicholas wanted to take some time out from the game and Gardner bided his time.

Nicholas played in a Strollers game in midweek and did well enough to go straight into the team for his debut. And it was an attack-minded line-up by Speirs, who also had Coakley up front, ahead of Cairney, McGrady, Quinn and Neill in midfield. Ricky Little was at right back after signing a further month's loan from Partick.

After last week's reverse at Peterhead, the aim was to try and maintain - or, better still, increase - our advantage over bottom pair Stranraer and Arbroath.

Our home record is poor - just two wins - and with Ayr challenging at the top of the table it would be tough. The rain had stopped meantime and it could almost have been a lovely winter's day, with bright sunshine between the clouds causing Homer and Gulliver no end of problems, nursing as they were some tender sensibilities after last night's annual dinner.

It had all been in a good cause, with around £5000 raised towards the youth development fund and a trust in memory of Paul Borland, the former Queen's Park player who died tragically recently.

Ayr sprung a surprise by leaving prolific scorer Alex Williams and midfield schemer Ryan Stevenson on the bench. That was good news for Queen's, since both always seems to do well against us.

But our luck didn't last long; just seven minutes, to be exact. That's how long it took Stevenson to engineer an opener for the visitors. How did he manage that from the bench, you will be asking. Well, Aitken went down injured in five minutes and was helped off. Enter Stevenson, and his first touch was a pinpoint ball which sliced through the Queen's defence and left Prunty with little more than a simple tap-in.

A goal far too easily conceded, especially since we had lost the ball from our own free kick deep in the Ayr half to gift the visitors their first attack of the game.

For our part, some 20 minutes in we had yet to get behind their defence or test keeper Grindlay. And we now had rain sweeping across the park. There was invention, though, with a training ground free kick on the half hour. Neill and Coakley appeared to argue over who was actually taking the kick, 25 yards out on the left. Neill seemed to have won the argument as Coakley wandered back towards the box, at which point Neill played a short one-two with Douglas. The ball was shuttled to the edge of the box, and Cairney laid it inside to the still advancing Coakley, but he couldn't control it and his cross was well behind. Still, at least they're thinking - although some in the stand thought the Neill-Coakley "argument" was for real.

Dempsey was booked for a scything challenge on Cairney in 32. Apart from that one spark at our free kick, Ayr carried the more threat. Their passing was slicker and quicker, although Crawford's only other action up to the 40-minute mark was to lose the ball at a corner under heavy pressure. McGeady was booked for a late tackle on McGowan.

Half-time: Queen's Park 0, Ayr United 1.

John Neill was replaced by Ross Dunlop at half-time. Was he carrying an injury? Two minutes in, Queen's had a mountain to climb. A lump up the park, we failed to clear, and Gormley's low cross from the left was bundled over the line by Prunty, who had come back from an offside position. Another poor goal to lose defensively.

And Ayr looked more likely to get a third, as they pressed home their advantage. Quinn did well to block a shot, with Ayr players appealing for hand ball, and our only relief was a Dunlop run which won a corner.

In 63 minutes, Gardner Speirs changed it, sending on Watt and Holms for McGrady and Coakley. Watt's first touch was a neat backheel which saw Holms break into the box. He was dispossessed and the ball broke to Cairney, but he shot wide under pressure. It was all over in 67 minutes when Prunty completed his hat-trick, beating the outrushing Crawford to a through ball on the left edge of the box and cleverly chipping the keeper.

Ayr sent on Agnew for Dempsie in 71 and two minutes later we saw the back of Prunty, to be replaced by Williams. Little was booked for a soft foul on Borris, who was then booked for upending Quinn, and it was only through good luck that Queen's didn't concede another in two moves down the right when the ball was whipped through our box.

Crawford then had to block point-blank from Agnew after he burst into the box on a stray pass from the otherwise steady Quinn, and he made another excellent block to deny Williams.

All in all another bad day at the office. We have much work to be done.