LUKE AYLING admits he had grown frustrated with his lot at Leeds United – but he is relishing his new lease of life with Middlesbrough.

Ayling remains a Leeds legend after making more than 260 appearances over the course of eight seasons for the Elland Road club, but he found himself shuffled out of the first team earlier this season when teenager Archie Gray was handed a starting spot at right-back.

With Gray rapidly establishing himself as one of the most exciting talents in the Championship, Ayling had to quickly accept that his chances of reclaiming his place in the Leeds side were limited, hence his decision to make a loan move to Teesside.

He has been an ever-present since making his Boro debut in mid-January, and is relishing the opportunity to start again at the age of 32.

“It was quite clear I was quite frustrated with the lack of game time (at Leeds),” said Ayling. “I totally understand why that was the case – I was at a club that’s got a young right-back who has been playing quite unbelievably – but I wasn’t getting the minutes that I wanted.

“When you get to my age, you don’t want to sit around and not play football. I love playing football on a Saturday afternoon, and I’m just so glad that a big club like Boro have come in and got me, and I’m happy to help the boys.”

While he started his Boro career as an orthodox right-back, Ayling has played as a wing-back in the last two games.

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He is ideally suited to the role given his comfort in possession and willingness to get forward and deliver balls into the box, and it was his delivery from the right flank that set up Marcus Forss’ headed goal that doubled Boro’s lead in Saturday’s 2-0 win at QPR.

“Getting up and down the flank is something that I’ve always based my game on,” said Ayling. “I still feel like I’ve got a lot of energy to give, so I can get up and down. It’s getting slightly harder, I’m not going to lie, and maybe it takes a little bit longer to get over the matches, but I’m just so happy to be back playing. I’ve played about eight games in a row now, so I’m really happy.”

Saturday’s win followed hot on the heels of last week’s home victory over Norwich, with the back-to-back successes having reignited Boro’s previously-faltering play-off push.

“The last two results have been huge,” said Ayling. “I think it just shows how quickly it can turn around in this league. We were struggling for form, and we weren’t playing the best. We weren’t scoring goals, and we weren’t really making too many chances, but in the last two games, we’ve shown what we can do.

“We’ve changed a few things, but we’ve stuck to our guns in terms of what we want to do and I think it just shows the character in the team that we’ve turned things around by creating chances and scoring a few goals in the last two games.”