Steve heaps praise on ex-Celt Findlay

KILMARNOCK manager Steve Clarke lauded the character of matchwinner Stuart Findlay after the defender played against Celtic with a knee injury.

Findlay (below), a product of Celtic’s youth system, did not train all week but made himself available for the game against his old club.

“Stuart had a bang on the knee and it was sore through the week,” said Clarke. “I was pleased for him. He didn’t train all week but he put his body on the line. He was struggling at half-time but those are some of the rewards footballing Gods give you.

“He didn’t train, got another bang first half but we’ve got good character in the squad.

“It’s about hard work and good players. We think we’ve got a decent squad here. We think we’ve improved a bit.

“Being critical on myself I’m maybe missing one central defender but two deals fell through on the last day of the window. They listen to the advice we give them and they try to put it into practice. Sometimes you get your rewards.

“We’d have been happy with a point but we’ve left some points behind in other games and feel we should be higher so that tells us where our ambition is.”

And Clarke also lauded the application of Kilmarnock who stuck to their task despite going a goal down in the opening period.

“We were competitive,” he said. “I was a little bit disappointed to be down at half-time because I didn’t think we deserved to be.

“We had decent control. Two mistakes on ball into box cost us but we reacted well.

“We spoke at half-time about believing. We’ve shown we can compete with the big teams.”