Keeper O'Donnell's arrival on a 28 day emergency loan deal from Sheffield Wednesday ended an eight match losing streak that had left Macclesfield just outside the drop zone.
And O'Donnell, 23, hopes to catch the eye of new Owls boss Dave Jones so he can add to the fourteen games he has made for the League One promotion hopefuls.
In the 73rd minuted striker Mustapha Carayol drifted into the box and hit a blistering shot from 16 yards, but O'Donnell, 23, dived to brilliantly beat the ball away.
And four minutes from time O'Donnell had to be at his best again to turn winger Lee Brown's low drive - from the same distance - past the post.
It was a dire affair on a poor pitch, but both teams could have broken the deadlock in the 58th minute and, again, O'Donnell was involved.
The 6' 1" keeper managed to claim an attempted lob from midfielder Matthew Lund and then immediately started a move that led to striker George Donnelly who flashed a shot just wide of the far post from a tight angle. After the game, Gas midfielder Lee Brown said that home keeper Scott Bevan had actually got a finger to the shot and so credit goes to him as well.
Wednesday sacked boss Gary Megson last week, but O'Donnell is fully focused on the Silkmen's survival bid to shut out in-form Rovers. He said:
"I'm from Sheffield lad and always been a Wednesday fan, so playing for them is living the dream. The manager's sacking was a shock, but it happens in football and so you just have to concentrate on the future. It's my club and so I obviously want to play for them, but I'm at Macclesfield at the moment.
That was the first clean sheet for quite a while and! on the back of three draws, we have something to build on."
And Brown told the media that the Rovers players were under no illusions that they could now sit back and see out the season. He pointed to the fact that the squad knew they were playing for their futures at the club. They now all have what amounts to a ten week job interview and given the precarious nature of the profession these days with very little job security on offer in the lower leagues, I think Gasheads can be forgiven for expecting a barnstorming end to a disappointing campaign.
How much the Memorial Ground surface allows them to play passing football is going to be open to question though I'm afraid!
Macclesfield boss Gary Simpson compared league survival last season like swimming the Channel and admitted:
"This time it's a more like the Atlantic. We rode our luck a little bit, but there was some great defending. That's three unbeaten We've stopped the rot and now need to put a few wins together and buy some time to get some of our injured players back.""
Rovers have lost only one game in seven since manager Mark McGhee's arrival and he said:
"We did enough to break them down, but we did not do enough to beat their goalie, I thought he was terrific. We dominated the game and defended well and we passed the ball well on a difficult surface.
We played a very resolute opposition who were very well organised."
My clipping from this morning's paper
And a little bit more of a 'show' from yesterday's edition
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