Watford's out-on-loan goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann feels he is developing well in Scotland and thinks Kilmarnock can push Celtic and Rangers for the SPL title.

The Austrian has said he is looking forward to returning to Watford in the summer, but is enjoying the experience of playing in Scotland.

He is now focusing on producing a strong finish to the season with Killie.

He said: "Obviously, the Premier League is the best league in the world and the SPL is not really at that level, but I think it’s a very good standard. 

"There's some good football being played and there's some big clubs as well where you get big crowds. Celtic get 60 thousand, Rangers get 50 thousand, there's a few others where you get well over 20 thousand as well.

"It’s a very good league and obviously it's important for me to keep playing now and for me to play in front of big crowds and play in big games, so it's definitely a good step for me to be here for this season.

"Nothing's better than playing, you can train as much as you want, but every game just teaches you more and more and it's important that I play on a regular basis. 

"I can feel myself, from game to game, things get better and easier and that’s important right now.

"It's been pretty unusual in Scotland this season. Celtic are usually pulling away at the top and that is not the case, not just with Rangers being close to them, but we're one point behind both and that’s pretty incredible really, if you look at the setups and budgets as well. 

"Of course we can cause an upset, we have a very good team and we are playing very well. If we keep up the points record like we did at the start of the season it’ll be very tough to beat us."

Bachmann is happy with the way his career has progressed since he joined the Hornets in 2017. 

However, he admits that life was far from pleasing at his previous club Stoke City, where his development stalled under their former boss, Mark Hughes. 

The 'keeper felt he was not allowed to develop his talent by being kept aside as a third place option.

He said: "I was with Stoke City for so long and under Mark Hughes I never got a chance, playing wise. We had to ask them to just let me go.

"There were times in the last 18 months where the club just looked at them self and didn’t care about me.

"There were situations where I could've gone on loan and they wouldn't let me go, just to keep me there as third choice, I couldn’t stay there anymore.

"The last 18 months at Stoke were hard for me mentally. Things happened that I wasn’t happy about, but I'm very happy now. I’m playing well and it’s a good time for me at the moment and hopefully I can push on from here."