Drop of the hard stuff
Sean: Loan stars won’t be shielded from hammer blow of Killie relegation
KILMARNOCK midfielder Sean Longstaff has slammed suggestions he and his fellow loan stars won’t be affected if the club are relegated. The 19-year-old, along with 20-year-old keeper Freddy Woodman and teenage winger Cal Roberts, will return to Newcastle this summer while Kristoffer Ajer (Celtic), Luke Hendrie (Burnley), Conor Sammon (Hearts) and Josh Umerah (Charlton) also head back to the security of their parent clubs. However, Longstaff insists the last thing they want is to leave Killie in the lurch – and in the Championship. Interim manager Lee McCulloch takes his side north to face Ross County today. The Staggies are just a point behind them in ninth place while the visitors are only four points above Hamilton in the play-off position. Longstaff scored Killie’s winner when the clubs last met in January and a repeat of that success would go a long way to easing their relegation fears. He said: “You definitely don’t want to go down. Luke was on loan at York last year and it happened to him – I’ve spoken to him about it. “He said it is a massive downer and it’s not great to have it on your CV that you’ve gone down. “Being here, in my first year in professional football, it’s not something I want. “I’ve only been at the club two months but you see the fans coming here every week and don’t want to let them down. You’d also be letting the staff down so we’ll be doing everything we can to avoid that situation.
“Staying up means everything. We’re playing for our team-mates as well – they maybe need wins to help them with money, bonuses and things like that. So everyone is fully behind each other and everyone is positive.”
Longstaff ’s goals have helped the club move away from the foot of the table. As well as his last-gasp stunner against County he also notched in a 1-1 draw at Hamilton and aims to improve his strike rate – starting today.
He said: “County was my first league game for Kilmarnock and it was a dream start. All I remember was the crowd and how loud it was at full-time.
“In the changing room afterwards all the lads were buzzing and it was a feeling I had never had before. It was my first win in professional football so hopefully we can do the same up there. Even if I hadn’t got that goal, though, I still would have thought straight away that it was the right decision in coming up here.
“The games are all really competitive and everything means so much to the lads.
“It really helps if you can chip in with some goals from midfield.
“I used to always like watching Paul Scholes play. His range of passing was great but he would still get forward and time it perfectly. Stevie Gerrard was another role model. He, Wayne Rooney and Scholes were the players I modelled myself on.”
Longstaff is convinced Killie can get the result that might force the board to hand McCulloch the job on a permanent basis. He said: “Everyone is fully behind Jig and the staff. I would love Jig to get the job but all we can do is get the results that will help him claim it.”