Young players can only rely on their potential for so long. At some point, that early promise must start being realised or the mood changes. Patience wears thin and opportunities dry up. Eventually, the phone stops ringing altogether.
This is the uncomfortable situation that Lawrence Shankland found himself in as the summer of 2017 faded away. He was still without a club when the new season kicked off. The striker had just turned 22 and was at a serious crossroads in his career. If he didn’t get this next move right, he risked drifting out of the game entirely.
This wasn’t where Shankland imagined he’d be after a superb breakthrough season with Queen’s Park saw him jump straight from the Scottish Third Division to the Premiership. But he’d failed to kick on as expected during four years at Aberdeen, spending much of that time on loan.
Shankland scored an underwhelming 25 goals in 105 games, but not once for the Dons. He’d taken his big opportunity for granted. Living on his own in Aberdeen, complacency had set in. Shankland had a poor diet and went out too often. He put on weight and wasn’t sharp enough to seize his chances when they came. Adam Rooney was scoring regularly and couldn’t be displaced. After 17 appearances and no notable contributions, Shankland was released.
A harsh wake-up call
Some players only learn how precarious their career is once it’s too late. Although the moment of realisation should have come sooner, Shankland still had time to turn things around. He demonstrated a renewed focus and professionalism while out of contract, prioritising his fitness.
Ian McCall, the manager widely credited for reinvigorating Shankland at Ayr United, says: “I know it sounds a wee bit hippieish and druid-like, but some players just need to grow as people to fulfil the potential they have. Some will do it a wee bit later than others.
“He just needed to play and find himself. He needed to feel wanted. I think it was good that he was back down close to Glasgow after being away up at Aberdeen. I think he just needed to evolve as a person, as much as anything else, so he could show how good he could be as a footballer.
“He didn’t just down tools. I know he found it hard for a while but then he started doing personal training and he got himself in really good condition. He needed a wee bit of love and to play games. Lawrence did that with us and obviously scored an awful lot of goals.”
This is a free read from Nutmeg’s rich archive of stories and interviews. If you’d like more from Scotland’s best team of football writers, why not take out a Print or combined Print + Digital subscription. This will give you full access to downloads of Nutmeg’s entire print back catalogue as well as our digital platform Nutmeg FC.
Following unsuccessful trials with Swansea City, Carlisle United and Dunfermline, Shankland was losing faith. He even considered becoming a delivery driver to keep himself busy and make ends meet. He was in danger of being cut adrift until an offer arrived from Ayr in September 2017. They had been relegated to League One the previous season.
Shankland had been on the verge of joining the Honest Men on loan in the January transfer window before late interest from Greenock Morton caused him to back out of the deal. He didn’t inform McCall, who was expecting to meet him in Glasgow, and the rejection stung.
“I was waiting there about half six and Owen Coyle, who’s a friend of the [Shankland] family, phoned me from India. He said: ‘Lawrence is scared to phone you. He’s away down to sign for Morton.’ I was absolutely raging,” McCall says.
“I think sometimes that would put you off, but when he got released by Aberdeen, and he was at a juncture where he didn’t know what he wanted to do, I bit the bullet and brought him in. There’s a great lesson in it for managers.”
The call that changed everything
Fortunately, McCall didn’t hold a grudge. He was prepared to swallow his pride and offer Shankland a lifeline. With leading scorer Craig Moore injured, a short-term deal was agreed. That rescued Shankland and ultimately set him on a path back to the top. After scoring on his debut, a 2-1 defeat at title contenders Raith Rovers, he never looked back. Ayr then went 12 games unbeaten, winning 10. By that stage, Shankland already had 12 league goals, more than he’d ever managed in a whole season before. He immediately felt at home.
“He’d bounced around a few teams on loan moves and I don’t think any of them really worked out for him,” says Michael Moffat, an experienced striker who became good friends with Shankland. “I know Ian McCall was always keen to get him. I’m not sure if he had any other options at that time. It was maybe a last chance for Shankers and he needed to give it a go.
“McCall did his background work and always got the right type of players around the dressing room. He had a good habit of getting younger boys like Shankland and Michael Rose who had been let go by Premiership teams. It was a case of maybe taking a step back with something to prove going forward.”
A breath of fresh Ayr
Ayr were fearless under McCall. A football romantic at heart, he wanted to entertain supporters. He gave his attacking players a lot of freedom and trusted in their ability. With the firepower in his squad, this approach reaped huge rewards, as the Honest Men scored an incredible 124 goals that season. Four players reached double figures – Declan McDaid, Moore, Moffat and Shankland. McCall’s faith made all the difference to the new signing.
“He just needed a manager who trusted him, and McCall certainly did that,” Moffat says. “He gave him the platform to just go and enjoy himself. You always knew he could score a goal out of nothing. He was always in the right place at the right time and that was no fluke. He was just so clinical. Any half-chances that came along, nine times out of 10 he’d find the net.”
Some players just have a spark between them. Shankland and Moffat, an Ayr legend with excellent technical ability, enjoyed an instinctive strike partnership. Moffat would often drop deep or drift out wide, while Shankland stretched the play and waited to pounce. They dovetailed superbly.
“Michael was a terrific footballer and allowed Lawrence just to do his thing. Michael was quite selfless in that he was a goalscorer himself, but he was very good at playing off and doing some of the link work. Lawrence can do that, of course, but it allowed him to play a little bit higher. When you start higher, and come a little bit deeper, you’re still in sight of the goals,” McCall says.
“There was also Craig Moore, who scored 27 goals in all competitions that season. They were both important for Lawrence, but Michael Moffat was a perfect foil for him. He’s a very talented boy and should have done better in his career. He linked the game really well and almost allowed Lawrence to stay within the width of the 18-yard box, which is key for a goalscorer.”
Moffat and Shankland click
Their connection was obvious from the start. Few games demonstrated it better than a 4-1 win away to Arbroath in November, where Moffat set up Shankland for both of his goals. They combined to open the scoring on 36 minutes, Moffat running into the channel to collect the ball and cleverly flicking it inside for Shankland to take a touch and beat the goalkeeper. In the second half, they were at it again, playing a neat give-and-go that sliced through the Smokies’ defence. Shankland sent a pass out wide for the scampering Moffat, who pulled the ball back so his strike partner could finish first time.
They were irrepressible during this period. Moffat claimed another assist for Shankland in Ayr’s next match as they beat Raith 3-0 at Somerset Park. He held the ball up well, waiting for support. Inevitably it arrived from Shankland. A quick turn away from his marker and he’d found the net. That result extended their lead at the top even further.
“Sometimes you find yourself playing with players who are automatically on the same wavelength. We just worked off each other brilliantly,” Moffat says. “We always knew where each other was on the park and we linked up so well, but we had a lot of help from the other boys around us. We were telepathic with the goals we scored and set each other up for. It was a joy to play with him.”
Shankland has been similarly effusive in his praise for Moffat, claiming that he couldn’t have handpicked a better strike partner. Their complementary playing styles created plenty of chances and the goals flowed. McDaid and Alan Forrest added to the mix, bringing pace and trickery in wide areas. Ayr recovered from a wobble around the turn of the year to lead Raith by five points with three games left. In March, another convincing home win against their title rivals was key.
“We played Raith Rovers in a really big game on a wet, horrid day,” McCall says. “Somebody fired in a free-kick and Lawrence got in front of his marker and bulleted home a header right in front of the Somerset Road End. It all went ballistic. That was a really emotional and important goal.”
Big goals in big moments
A fortnight later, Shankland scored his first senior hat-trick against Queen’s Park, the club where he started out. He was at his clinical best, lifting the first over an onrushing goalkeeper, hooking in the second, and improvising a volley for the third. After just 34 minutes, the match ball belonged to him.
Shankland was a goalscoring machine. In his first season at Ayr, he only once went two games in a row without finding the net. Amid all the plaudits his record garnered, there were accusations that he was a one-dimensional player who didn’t contribute enough outside the box to thrive at a higher level. McCall is eager to refute them. More than just his clever movement and crisp finishing, Shankland was good in the air and used his body well.
“He’s a natural finisher – just the positions he takes up – but I wasn’t aware of all the other attributes he had, which he very quickly showed in training and in games. He’s as strong as an ox. He can score every type of goal and he’s far more clever than people realise in terms of how he links play and his ability.”
Beyond the goals
Despite scoring a bucketload of goals – 29 in 33 games overall during Ayr’s promotion charge – Shankland could have had more. He was sent off half an hour into their penultimate home game against Stranraer for leading with his elbow as he went up to challenge for a header. In his absence, the visitors went on to grab a late winner.
Ayr stumbled with the finishing line in sight. Shankland’s recklessness could have cost them promotion as he was banned for the last two games of the season. Defeat to Alloa Athletic allowed Raith to reclaim top spot heading into a dramatic final day. The Honest Men did their job, beating Albion Rovers 2-0 through Moore and McDaid. Once confirmation of Raith’s goalless draw came through, Somerset Park erupted. Supporters swarmed onto the pitch to celebrate with their heroes. A first league title since 1997.
From scrapheap to star man
Although he was forced to watch that decisive victory from the stands, Shankland had been crucial to Ayr’s success and was deservedly recognised for his achievements. He collected the award for League One’s top scorer with 26 goals, six more than his nearest rival, and player of the year too. Moffat had also been shortlisted alongside Alan Trouten and Lewis Vaughan, but Shankland did the double.
A year on from wondering if the scrapheap awaited, he was in serious demand. Shankland had multiple offers to consider but McCall made the case for staying with Ayr.
“I met him and his dad in a coffee shop. My argument was, ‘You’ve spent a good few years trying to make this kind of impact, maybe going about it the wrong way. You’ve now made this impact, why would you think about moving?’ “At that point, we had a terrific team. Lots of really good players who went on to be worth a lot of money. The older pros were fantastic. Do you want to go somewhere and start again, or do you want to just continue this for another year and put yourself in an even stronger position?”
Trusting the process
It was a persuasive argument. Shankland felt settled and valued at Ayr in a way he never had before. The team was set up to get the best out of him and he now had the chance to prove himself in the Championship. There were still lingering doubts about whether he could score consistently at that level after disappointing loan spells at St Mirren and Morton. Shankland agreed a new one-year deal on the understanding that, if everything went to plan, he would leave at the end of the season.
McCall kept the core of his promotion-winning team together, and made a few important additions in Daniel Harvie, Liam Smith and Andy Murdoch. Ayr took the Championship by storm. A Shankland brace secured an opening-day win over Partick Thistle and they lost just two of their first 18 league games to top the table going into 2019. The best result of all came at the end of November, away to Dundee United, who many believed were certainties for promotion. The Honest Men demolished them on their own patch.
“We stopped off at a hotel on the way to Tannadice and we had the worst pre-match meal. There was a fire in the kitchen. There was a hen party in the same place we were eating. It was just bizarre. Terrible preparation. We walked out and Lawrence scored four that night. We beat them 5-0,” McCall says.
Moffat remembers that match with particular fondness. It was a mark of how far Ayr had come during his time at the club. He slotted home the third on 78 minutes and then won the penalty that gave Shankland his hat-trick. After a smart control and finish to complete the rout, the boos rang out around Tannadice. It was the night where Scottish football truly sat up and took notice of both Shankland and his free-scoring team.
“I think that’s probably what cemented his move to Dundee United, going up there and beating the title favourites,” says Moffat. “It could have been more. That’s probably the best all-round performance I’ve been part of for an Ayr United team. Everybody thought we could go and win the league after that.”
Tipped to go straight back down and operating on one of the division’s smallest budgets, Ayr were remarkably on course for consecutive promotions. Led by their star striker, who was continuing to score at a rate of almost a goal a game, they were rampant. Even Premier League Dundee were confidently dispatched 3-0 at Dens Park to reach the League Cup quarter-finals, where Rangers put an end to their run.
Perhaps Shankland’s best strike came in the group stage of that competition against Partick Thistle. “We were winning 1-0 at Firhill. We had a great following because the team was so good to watch,” McCall says. “The ball just came to him on the volley and he’s not even looked, he’s just lashed it. It’s travelled 40 yards and fell over the head of the goalkeeper, right in the net without bouncing. You turned to look at the John Lambie Stand – most of the Thistle fans were clapping and the rest were walking out! That was a hell of a goal.”
Ayr’s fairytale falters
Momentum is a powerful, yet elusive, force in football. For 18 months, Ayr had it in abundance. Then everything changed in a flash. Injuries struck midway through their first season back in the Championship. Deprived of that extra dash of quality, they faltered and found it impossible to recover. Of the five games Shankland missed, four ended in defeat. When he was available, he scored less frequently, only managing six goals in his last 15 appearances. Ayr had finished the regular season in fourth, 17 points behind eventual champions Ross County, before suffering a play-off defeat to Inverness.
“With the nature of the club, our squad was far smaller. If you have four or five of your key players out, you’re going to really struggle. We couldn’t really cope with it, but there was a spell that season, over 20 games or so, where I thought we were comfortably the best team in the league,” McCall says. Alongside the pride at how well they competed, a lingering sense of regret remains.
“I think it was just bad timing and who we were up against. Finishing in the top four was a good achievement having just been promoted, but we were a wee bit disappointed because if we’d kept everyone fit, you never know what would have happened,” Moffat says.
Such a talented squad was inevitably dismantled that summer. Shankland was the headline departure, but Rose, Smith, McDaid and Robbie Crawford also moved on. McCall tried to rebuild but was then tempted away by an offer to manage Partick Thistle for a second time. Senior player Mark Kerr took over and the Premiership retreated from view. It was the end of an era, a brief but special chapter in Ayr’s history. Excitement and optimism surrounded the club. They hadn’t played in the top division since 1978 and McCall’s refreshingly attack-minded team had taken them to within touching distance for the first time in almost 20 years.
Old Firm lose interest
Shankland was perhaps the greatest symbol of their philosophy and its success. After 63 goals in 74 games, he had outgrown Ayr, but certain offers didn’t materialise. Lack of pace was a concern for potential suitors, along with memories of how he’d toiled at Aberdeen. Some worried that there were limits to his effectiveness. Even though Shankland was available on a free transfer, interest from the Old Firm petered out.
“I had a couple of glasses of wine with Steven Gerrard and Gary Mac [McAllister] and they were very, very close to taking him for nothing, but they went for Jermain Defoe, who’s not a bad striker to be honest!” laughs McCall.
Shankland thought he would be joining an English Championship club that summer, but the move collapsed. In the end, Dundee United were a surprise destination. Regardless of recent struggles, they were clearly a bigger club than Ayr, but still in the same division.
Robbie Neilson saw Shankland’s goals as a guaranteed route to promotion, and so it proved. He scored four on his league debut. The coronavirus pandemic curtailed that first season, but the Tangerines went up as champions. The next year under Micky Mellon was more difficult and Shankland was eventually reunited with Neilson at Hearts after a frustrating spell in Belgium at Germinal Beerschot.
Potential fulfilled
Since returning to Scottish football in 2022, he has been almost unstoppable. “I think Lawrence has taken a wee while to get to where he should have been four or five years ago. The big thing is he deserves everything he gets. He comes from a great family, he’s really settled with Nicole and he’s looking the part now,” McCall says. “A great boy. A leader, in a different type of way. Has time for everybody. I couldn’t speak highly enough of him as a person.”
As Hearts’ sharpshooting captain and the first Jambo to win PFA Scotland Player of the Year, life has changed drastically for Shankland since he left Ayr. But without that prolific spell, where he learned from past mistakes and redoubled his efforts, the striker wouldn’t be where he is now. He understands what the club did for him at a crucial stage in his development.
McCall believed in Shankland and gave him a second chance when others wouldn’t have bothered. Ayr had offered McCall his own shot at redemption, providing a route back into management after gambling addiction had derailed his life. Tellingly, he showed the same compassion when dealing with Shankland, who still occasionally comes to him for advice.
Relationships formed through football are often fleeting and transactional. They are used in service of a shared goal and readily discarded when that’s no longer the case. But McCall speaks about Shankland with genuine warmth and affection. They’ve stayed in contact and have a strong bond, built on more than just a mutual appreciation for how they both flourished during those two unforgettable seasons together.
A fine boy
“Everybody says I did a lot for Lawrence, but after what I went through, it was Lawrence who did a lot for me, to be perfectly honest. I think the biggest thing is that you take pride in the type of people they are. He’s a fine, fine boy. You just want them to do well and it’s lovely if they do.”
👏 | Congratulations to Ian McCall and Lawrence Shankland who have been named the @Ladbrokes Championship Manager and Player of the Month for August! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/Fr3IfPUVxY
— Ayr United (@AyrUnitedFC) September 6, 2018
Moffat helped bring the best out of Shankland too. The young gun and the veteran got on well, despite the decade that separates them in age. “It was a great privilege to play with him and see how he’s kept on going to another level. I’m still quite close with him,” he says. “I had my testimonial last year and he attended four or five of the events. That just shows what kind of guy he is. He didn’t need to turn up, but he did it without a problem. He got together with all the boys that were involved and we had a great laugh.”
Shankland was shaped by Ayr. He’s become a better and more rounded player over time, but the essence of his game remains unchanged. That same instinct for where the ball’s going to land. That same unerring eye for goal. That same hunger to prove people wrong. Everyone with a connection to Ayr will continue to cheer him on.