Flashback to the 19th of April 2019, and Bradford City fans walked away from the Ricoh Arena in a dismay, knowing they would be facing the likes of Forest Green Rovers and Morecambe in next season's Sky Bet League Two season.
Rock bottom of League One, and manager Gary Bowyer began to look ahead to next year's promotion push and assemble his squad; bringing in the likes of James Vaughan, Clayton Donaldson and Ben Richards-Everton to shape up a starting eleven. However, Bowyer turned heads when Ben Wilson departed Valley Parade for Coventry and was replaced by Port Vale goalkeeper Sam Hornby, who came in with an array of plaudits from his former employers supporters, even some claiming he was the second best goalkeeper in the league behind Scott Brown. However, those opinions would appear biased.
Hornby immediately came in to challenge for that number one spot, but failed to get off to a great start as he conceded four in a 4-0 overhaul from Championship side Preston North End in the EFL Cup, which admittedly did not fill City fans with hope. This was Richard O'Donnell's chance, and he took it. The former Northampton and Rotherham shot stopper conceded just five goals in his first eight games of the season, keeping an excellent four clean sheets in that time and impressing the Bradford fans with his precise distribution and outstanding reflexes to save some shaky defending.
In fact, O'Donnell excelled in his first team role so much that Bowyer made the understandable decision to loan out Hornby, sending him to struggling National League side AFC Fylde to fill in their goalkeeping hole and hopefully stabilise their woeful defence. O'Donnell's back-up and closest competitor was the youthful George Sykes-Kenworthy, who never really certified himself as a challenger but as more of student to the experienced O'Donnell who appeared to be tutoring Sykes-Kenworthy. O'Donnell has also bonded well with new goalkeeping coach John Vaughan, who replaced Maik Taylor at the beginning of the season, and with O'Donnell's experience and Vaughan's history, having helped Barnsley goalkeeper Adam Davies earn a place in the League One Team of the Season for the 2018/19 season, it's likely the future could be bright for a promising Sykes-Kenworthy.
Along with O'Donnell's prolific start to the season, the 31 year old had to fight off a new competitor in January; Portsmouth's Luke McGee. O'Donnell suffered a hamstring injury in a weary 2-1 defeat away to Crawley Town in January, causing the club to quickly bring in McGee on a loan deal until the end of the season to temporarily fill the position between the sticks. However after four games replacing O'Donnell, McGee looked hopeful but his insistence on punching the ball rather than catching it and his distribution threatened his position in the team and O'Donnell, returning speedily from injury, immediately took back his position and has not looked back since, having kept McGee and Sykes-Kenworthy out of the squad to this day.
Fast forward to the end of the season, and O'Donnell has thrown his hat in for the Player of the Season, having kept an admirable ten clean sheets in 33 games and keeping one every 30.3% of games, which was the joint sixth most in England's fourth tier. A man who suffered back-to-back-to-back relegations, once with Rotherham United, then with Northampton Town and finally with Bradford, the Englishman has finally stopped the rot and ended the curse in style, as a goalkeeper who has rectified his first season at Valley Parade, now as a reliable shot stopper between the sticks and most importantly a leader at the back, commanding his defence and sorting out their shape which at times has been questionable.
As the season reaches a temporary halt due to the coronavirus pandemic, footballers in the lower leagues have been pushed out of the small limelight they received during the season but O'Donnell has continued to show his class attitude to the fans, supporting the Bradford City Ribbons and shirts being sold by Georgia Thornton to raise funds for the Bradford Burns Unit, showing his support and raising mental health awareness through the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) and clearly being an inspiration of a parent, as his son Archie is attempting to cycle 100k in May to raise funds for the Darby Rimmer MND Foundation.
O'Donnell's contract is up next month and the Bantams boss Stuart McCall has approximately two weeks to release his retained list, but whilst its likely O'Donnell will sign on for the 2020/21 campaign, whenever it does happen, his future currently remains in the balance and if he is to leave, he can hold his head high as one of the few players who have showed he cares this season as the unsung hero of Bradford City's season.
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