DROP ZONE TO EURO ZONE
KILMARNOCK STEVE EYES PRIZE
STEPHEN O’DONNELL thought he was heading for the Championship with Kilmarnock when Lee McCulloch left Rugby Park.
Then Steve Clarke arrived in October – and six months on the defender is daring to dream of European football.
O’Donnell, 25, scooped the Ladbrokes Premiership Player of the Month award for March alongside Clarke who lifted the manager’s trophy.
He said: “I loved my time at Partick Thistle and I have some great memories from my time at Firhill.
“But the success we’ve enjoyed here since the manager came in has made it the best spell of my career.
“When I signed in the summer I hoped we’d be a BY ANTHONY HAGGERTY top-six team. It didn’t really happen at the start of the season. When McCulloch left I was wondering if Kilmarnock were going to be a Premiership team never mind a top-six team.
“Clarke has made some difference – collectively and personally. All of us have improved massively.
“Jordan Jones has been a standout and Kris Boyd has rolled back the years – and he’s played under some top managers. We’re all enjoying it. We have a system, a team and a set-up and we all know what is happening.”
O’Donnell has been touted as Scotland’s answer to the troublesome right-back slot.
But he said: “If you asked me the Scotland question at the start of the season I’d have said I was just coming back up the road to prove I’m a good player, week in week out with a team.
“Thankfully I’ve pretty much managed to show that.
“Scotland is something I haven’t thought of. It would be brilliant but I’d be kidding myself if I said it was a target.
“I would love to play for Scotland and see what I can do but that is all for the future.”
Killie are seven points behind Hibs with a game in hand but have a chance to reduce the arrears tomorrow at Hamilton.
And O’Donnell added: “There is no point in talking about Europe if we don’t go and beat Hamilton first. Even if we do that Hibs still have a lead on us so it’s going to be difficult.
“We will give it everything to try to do it because European football would be unbelievable.
“Our priorities have changed. First it was staying in the league. Then it was finish top of the bottom six.
“Then it was get into the top six – which we did with a few games to spare.
“It’s really just credit to the manager and his staff, they have been brilliant from the minute they arrived.”
Meanwhile, midfielder Dean Hawkshaw will be on the look-out for a new club this summer after five years at Rugby Park.
Hawkshaw, 20, has been told his contract won’t be renewed at the end of the campaign. He has made 22 appearances for Killie, becoming a first-team regular under ex-management duo McCulloch and Peter Leven, but was loaned to Stranraer in January.
STEPHEN O’DONNELL