RICKI Lamie insists he’s looking forward to receiving stick from a vocal Ayr United support — and says he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Lamie has been the target for some friendly banter at Somerset Park since 2012, when United took on the 23-year-old’s former side Airdrie United in the then Scottish Second Division play-offs.

Ayr midfielder Jackson Longridge was shown a straight red card for a foul on Lamie, but it was the defender who was painted as the villain — and he’s been remembered as such since that afternoon.

He told the Tele: “Since I’ve started playing professionally, regardless of who I’ve been playing for, Somerset has always been a difficult place to go because the fans are so noisy.

“Going there when it’s a healthy crowd it’s quite an intimidating place to visit. 

“The supporters they’ve got are a vocal bunch, but it makes it more of a spectacle and adds to the game, I think. That’s what you play for, it’s brilliant.

“I’ve always received a bit of stick from Ayr fans from my early days after an incident that happened when I was a bit younger.

“It was during my first professional season at Airdrie, I had just started playing with the first team and we managed to get to the play-offs.

“We played Ayr in the semi-finals and the first-leg was 0-0 at Airdrie. The second-leg we won down at Somerset but I was on the receiving end of a bad tackle in the first half, which led to an Ayr player being sent off.

“From then on, even though I was on the receiving end of the tackle, it always seems to live on! It’s a good bit of banter and it’s nice to see that people have such long memories!”

Lamie believes this season has been positive so far for Ton, as they sit in third place in the Ladbrokes Championship table. 

But he claims it was the first clash between the two sides this season — at Somerset Park — which was the catalyst in Morton’s upturn in form.

He said: “That was a hard day. We were frustrated, the supporters were frustrated. At that time it was two or three bad results on the trot. 

“It was a turning point in our season because after that day with the sending off and injuries, we could’ve felt sorry for ourselves.

“We kicked on though and projected ourselves up the league and got a few good results under our belts. So it’s a different run of form we’re in going into it this time.

“It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why we struggle against Ayr. We’ve always seemed to struggle a wee bit in the past. 

“Even though we managed to pick up the win at Cappielow last time, it was a hard fought game and three points.

“Down at Somerset it was a 2-1 defeat and obviously that wasn’t a good day. It also wasn’t a good day for myself because I went off injured. A couple of factors went against us and we’ve thankfully put those right at Cappielow. 

“So it would be nice to win because it’s a renowned difficult place to go for anybody.

“If we can go down there and come away with three points at the end of it, we’ll have done very well.”