Kevin Donnelly reveals football sabbatical due to work commitments

Jul 29 2010 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

WITH one glorious swipe of his right foot Kevin Donnelly became a Linlithgow Rose legend.

The rampaging right-back booted the West Lothian club to Emirates Junior Scottish Cup glory in May with a wonder winner to seal Junior football’s top prize for his side.

But this week he has revealed to the Courier he won’t be able to take part in Rose’s cup defence — or their assault on the Senior Scottish Cup this season.

Bagging the winner in the show-piece final was an afternoon the Scottish Cup hero acknowledges he’ll never forget but he always expected — well at least hoped — there’d be more to come in the future.

But Donnelly has reluctantly admitted he has too much on his plate to commit to the West Lothian club.

He said: “Work commitments have got in the way and as such I can’t commit to playing and being at training every week.

“After the summer break, and much thought, I’ve decided to pack it in until Christmas at least.

“It is disappointing as football has been a part of my life for over 20 years and after the buzz of the Junior Scottish Cup final.

“I’ll probably have withdrawal symptoms before too long.

“The gaffer has been great and has offered me the use of the club’s facilities to train and keep my fitness up.

“I’m working on a qualification with my work and have to study for an exam in mid November.

“So if that goes well then hopefully I can get back to playing football.

“Football has been a part of my life since I was five or six years old so it will be a culture shock not to be playing.

“It is disappointing that I probably won’t play a part in the club’s Senior Scottish Cup experience, I’m gutted to be missing that as it was such a great experience in 2007.

“I had an idea this might happen as it was a struggle to balance work, studies and football last season and I fell behind in my studies due to the amount of midweek games we had.

“So something had to give and work has to come first.

“Hopefully it will just be for six months and I’ll be able to return at Christmas time.”

Donnelly does though have the memory of his match winning wonder goal to keep him comfort during his forced sabbatical from the game he loves.

But he jokes his team mates don’t share the same memories he does about his 30-yard winner.

“I still don’t know where that goal came from and I’ve never hit a ball that well before or since,” he confessed.

“But I’m also still being wound up every day by the boys who claim it was a cross to the back post which flew in.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget it, it was a great day.

“After the cup final I got all the boys to sign my shirt which I then had framed along with my cup final medal which I then gave to my Dad.”

Rose fans will be hoping Donnelly returns sooner rather than later with the side losing SIX first-team players from their cup winning squad.

Donnelly added: “Rose have lost a few players and it is disappointing I won’t be available either. I tried to hold off as long as I could but it wasn’t fair on the club not to give 100 per cent.

“It was a tough decision but one I had to make.”