Paul Sheerin refused to be over-critical after Arbroath missed the chance to leapfrog Ayr into a play-off position.
Despite dominating the first half, the Lichties were caught out right on the break when Kevin Kyle grabbed his first Ayr goal.
Lee Erwin then had an equaliser controversially flagged offside before Adam Hunter hit a clinching second for Ayr.
Player-boss Sheerin said: “I thought we played some good stuff in spells and created a few half-chances.
“It was a frustrating type of day. I don’t think we played badly but lost a goal on the stroke of half-time from a set-piece.
“The second goal was through a barrage of legs with a couple of deflections.
“I’m not overly disappointed, which sounds strange after losing a game 2-0, because I felt we passed it around reasonably well.
“We are creating chances and on another day may have got something out the game.
“I thought we were back on top again when Ayr scored their second goal against the run of play and that knocked the stuffing right out of us.”
The busy Erwin gave Ayr a hot time in the first half. He twice went close to the opener and then just failed to connect with an Alan Cook cross right in front of goal.
He thought he had equalised in 66 minutes when he slammed home a Sheerin cross but was ruled offside.
Sheerin said: “The linesman told me it was No 9 (Erwin) who was offside but I disagree with that. It was questionable whether Ross Chisholm was but definitely not Erwin.”
He added: “It just never happened for us, unfortunately. We huffed and puffed but it was uphill after the second goal.”
Ayr player-boss Mark Roberts admitted his team had got lucky as they climbed to third in the table: “Arbroath were the better team in the first half and their big boy up front (Erwin) caused us problems all day. I’m delighted to come away with a 2-0 win after not playing well.”