I’d love to be at Killie for belong run

ALL THE LATEST NEWS Findlay happy to stay in Ayrshire because Rugby Park is 2nd home

STUART FINDLAY is enjoying celebrity status among the Killie fans due to his knack of scoring crucial late goals.

Twice last season he notched priceless last-gasp winners against Celtic and Hearts.

He was at it again on Thursday as he headed in the 93rd-minute winner as Killie came from behind to snatch a 2-1 Europa League first-leg success over Connah’s Quay Nomads in Rhyl.

Findlay said: “At the end of the Connah’s Quay game there were three stands of Killie fans loving what I did for them.

“That gave me a feeling of immense pride that I have not had anywhere else in my career.”

EUROPA LEAGUE goal hero Stuart Findlay admits he’s gone from obscurity to opportunity knocks – and owes it all to Kilmarnock. The 23-year-old defender’s form at Rugby Park has led to him being the subject of interest from League One side Oxford United. Findlay, however, is enjoying life under new Kilmarnock manager Angelo Alessio and hopes the club can build on the success achieved last season under Steve Clarke. Oxford boss Karl Robinson spoke about Findlay in glowing terms this week and the U’s are reputedly weighing up a £500,000 offer for the player. Findlay concedes he was a run-of-the-mill stopper before Clarke got a hold of him and urged him to believe in himself to prove he could play at the highest level. He credits the new Scotland coach for transforming him into the lynchpin of the Killie defence as well as a Scotland international.

Which largely explains why Findlay – who is contracted to the club until 2021 – is in no great hurry to head for the exit.

He said: “If someone says something nice publicly about you it’s nice to hear. But I’m a Kilmarnock player and I am over the moon to be a Kilmarnock player.

“Over the last two years the club have taken me from obscurity to playing the best football I have ever played and that has helped me get into the Scotland set-up.

“I owe everything to Kilmarnock. Whatever happens off the field has nothing to do with me.

“Football is the ultimate confidence sport. I have always had belief in my own ability and that I can play at the levels I’m now at.

“It took a bit of managerial BY ANTHONY HAGGERTY genius from Steve Clarke in the way he used me and dragged it out of me. I feel I now truly belong in this Kilmarnock team.

Findlay’s busy eyeing up his next target and hopes to finally make his Scotland breakthrough under Clarke.

He said: “Every time you reach a landmark in your career you always want to push on for the next one.

“I know I did well last season but I have not really achieved anything yet and need to go and make myself as good a player as I can for Kilmarnock because that’s all that matters.

“If that helps me get noticed by the new Scotland boss then great.”

For the time being Findlay is still busy getting to grips with Alessio’s style and philosophy of football.

He said: “It has been really good under the new manager, a different world to me as I have never had a foreign manager. There are a lot of different ways of looking at things.

“I spoke with big Larry [Laurentiu Branes cu] and he said it is a carbon copy of what Antonio Conte did when he was at Juventus. It is a really different way of looking at football and it’s a great thing.

“Steve Clarke instilled a great discipline and a way of not getting beaten but if we can add another string to out bow under Angelo that can be good for us.”

I’ve always had belief in my ability and that I can play at this level STUART FINDLAY ON LIFE AT RUGBY PARK