Ayr coach Calum Forrester believes an early injury and a red card were crucial elements in the 22-13 defeat to Glasgow Hawks in the Scottish Cup quarter-final.
The hosts took full advantage of the seasiders' double misfortune to book a home last-four tie against Boroughmuir, who beat Stirling County at Meggetland.
Forrester stated: "It was always going to be tough, playing with 14 men for 40 minutes, having already lost Kerr Gossman early on. His absence took pace away from our backline."
The pivotal moment came when scrum-half Dave Armstrong was dismissed for punching during a spat with Jack McFarlane.
Forrester added: "The boys tried their hardest, however Hawks defended well and did the clever thing by putting the ball into the corners in the later stages.
"Our eyes are now on the league and winning our remaining three games to secure a home play-off match is our mission."
Hawks assistant coach Peter Laverie said: "We had a few hairy moments, but I was very pleased with the performance.
"Sean Yacoubian came back and made some very good kicks which kept us deep in their territory late in the game."
"Our open play was good and we certainly covered well and chased well, which was key to the victory."
Hawks were boosted by tries from Paddy Boyer and Brendan Cullinane either side of the interval.
But it was a four-penalty volley by Jack Steel that really knocked the stuffing out of the seasiders.
Heriot's had to come from behind to edge past gallant Howe of Fife by 33-30 at Goldenacre.
They now travel to Hawick, who also had to work hard before seeing off the challenge of opponents from a lower division.
Touchdowns from John Coutts Rory Scott and Nick McLennan laid the foundations of the 19-13 success against local rivals Kelso.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article