George Stanger has insisted he is 100 per cent committed to Kilmarnock and was not sidetracked by summer window bids from Burton Albion. The English side made a number of failed bids for the newly-capped New Zealand international.
The 26-year-old is out of contract in the summer but his focus is putting wins on the board for Killie.
Stanger's focus on games
Stanger said: “It’s been really easy. I’m under contract to Kilmarnock. My contract is not up until the summer so it is just a matter of concentrating on the games. That's always my focus: the games.
“There was a bit of noise around that, but for me it was always, you know, full focus on our next game and it always be my approach. I’ve always been that way throughout my career and will continue to approach things that way.”
Stanger has returned to Ayrshire after winning his first Kiwi caps. He played and helped New Zealand get to the final of the Kirin Cup, which they lost to Japan.
Rangers test ahead
He returns to Kilmarnock with confidence. He is also looking for Killie to kick on after a revival before the break. That will be put to the test when Rangers head down the road on Saturday night.
The centre half accepted: “We know it's going to be a huge as. Rangers are a very, very good team. It’s going to be tough, but, you know, we'll focus on bringing our own game. We will go in with confidence.”
Kilmarnock look to have turned the corner. Their only defeat in the last four games was on penalties to Aberdeen in the Premier Sports Cup. They got a draw at Pittodrie and with Hearts and beat Hibs.
Turning the corner
Stanger was always confident his team would find their rhythm. He insisted: “We feel like there's a good amount of belief in the squad. Obviously, it wasn't the start to the season we wanted. We knew we had to turn things around and be better in a lot of different areas.
“We always fully believed. I think people are starting to see we’ve turned the corner. All the players and coaching staff were confident that would happen. It was just a case of fine-tuning little details in games.
“Getting the draw and the clean sheet at Aberdeen was big because that is a hard place to go. We had the disappointment of losing to Aberdeen on penalties in the club but we have responded well. To beat Hibs away, which the club hadn't done for 11, 12 years and then we were disappointed with the draw against Hearts because we played well in that game and could have won it. We were all really disappointed after that game that we didn't win the game and keep a clean sheet against a very, very good Hearts team.”
The big thing for him was that first clean sheet in the 0-0 league draw with Aberdeen. Stanger accepted: “We know that we had to be better defensively as a team. As a centre-back, you know, personally, it was hard. I know you defend and attack as a team but, as a defender, you never like to lose goals.
“It turned at Aberdeen and in the last four games we have only lost a couple of goals. If we can keep that going then it will give us a good base because as a team we always look like scoring.”
