Alex Rae blasted St Mirren’s weekend showing as unacceptable as they salvaged a point at bottom-side Ayr United.

The Buddies had to rely on loan Ranger Tom Walsh to rescue them at Somerset Park through an 89th-minute leveller to cancel out Jamie Adams’ first-half opener.

Two weeks ago the Saints manager was critical of the showing put in from his men in a poor defeat away to Raith Rovers while he was far from impressed with his defence during last week’s 2-0 home reverse to Hibs.

It was a mixture of both again this time around as Rae criticised his men for shipping another soft goal and failing to follow pre-match instructions to show courage in possession.

"If you don’t defend a simple ball into the back post you’re going to become unstuck and we didn’t do that again,” he said.

“I want us to be a wee bit braver on the ball. It looks like we’re asking them to shell the ball and we done some stuff in the last couple of days about playing the lines because we felt as if we could get joy by doing that and we’re just shelling balls up.

“It’s just a wee bit of a [lack of] confidence – taking the easy option – but I’m pleased we got the point but it’s nowhere near acceptable.”

Rae also accused his team of trying the easy option at times, with them now sitting with just two points from their first four Ladbrokes Championship games.

He added: “One of the things that gives you confidence is how you are playing yourself. When you’re getting on the ball and passing the ball. At no point have we told the boys to start shelling the ball. “There’s the odd diagonal that might be effective when it is up to John Sutton but it becomes an easy option.

“We tried to utilise Ryan [Hardie’s] pace in behind and when we get the service into him he just sets it on a plate.

“We wanted to be brave. We played three at the back and wanted to try and take the game to Ayr.”