Ayr United defender Liam Smith has insisted his loyalties remain with Ian McCall’s side – even though he will be joining Dundee United in the summer.
The right-back, who has agreed a two-year deal with United, played against the Tangerines on Friday night and would have no problem doing it again in the promotion play-offs.
He said: “It’s been good to have my future sorted and tied up. It’s allowed me to then focus on the rest of the season – that gets put to bed until the summer when I start.
“For now and for the remainder of the season, my focus will be solely on doing well for Ayr, as it has been for the whole year.
“You see it quite a lot now with pre-contracts and players going up against future employers, you’ve got Jordan Jones at Kilmarnock and his move to Rangers – that is a well-documented one and it happens a lot now.
“I can only focus on just now and doing well and then I can go away and look forward to next year.
“We want to finish the league as high as we can and take a bit of momentum into the play-offs and the sooner we can confirm our place in the play-offs the better.”
Smith helped St Mirren clinch the Championship title last season during his loan spell from Hearts before signing a one-year deal with Ayr last summer.
He added: “Coming away from Hearts I knew I had to continue to play games like I did last year.
“For the manager to play me every week and give me that platform to show what I can do I’ve got to be grateful to Ayr for that.
“A lot of boys have been attracting attention, within the dressing room we knew we could do more than just stay up.
“I think we’ve defied a lot of peoples’ expectations.
“It looked like it could have been an incredible season at one stage, we fell away slightly but for the club to finish in the play-offs and have a chance to get into the Premiership is a brilliant achievement.”
