Del will get big budget
90th-minute winner finally ended the heroic challenge of Arbroath in front of a turbo-charged 11,500 crowd.
Bowie admits he got carried away in the bedlam – a frenzy on a scale he had never witnessed at Rugby Park. But the owner was deadly serious as he targeted a top-six spot on their Premiership return.
After watching McInnes turn their faltering fortunes around, Bowie admits the former Aberdeen gaffer’s magic touch gives him hope for next season.
He said: “Definitely. When I’m about the place I can see the way they train and I see his work ethic.
“We’ve already di s cussed the future with him and this summer he’ll be given the biggest budget in Killie’s history.
“I’ve been here for nine years now and you get to know what’s right for the club. We know the budget we require to become a top-six club. There’s a calmness about Derek which gives us confidence.
“He has gone higher than top six before and that would be nice but we’ll go for top six for starters.”
Killie looked set to surrender top spot to Arbroath on Friday before two late goals blew the roof off Rugby Park.
Bowie said: “You could see the relief by our reaction to both of the goals.
“I’ve never known a response like that at Rugby Park before, from the supporters as well as ourselves.
“Directors normally just applaud when we score during games but we erupted. Even when we were beating Celtic and Rangers here during Steve Clarke’s time in charge it wasn’t like this.
“There were 10,000 Kilmarnock fans in the ground. We’ve had bigger crowds before but you need to go back until 1995 for the last time we had more of our own supporters at a game here. It was fantastic.”