Jamie MacDonald is on a mission to re-establish himself as Kilmarnock's first-choice goalkeeper after being unceremoniously dropped for the second half of last season.
The 31-year-old, who had been in the best form of his career throughout his first 18 months at Rugby Park, suddenly found himself marginalised from January onwards after former manager Lee Clark signed highly-regarded Newcastle youngster Freddie Woodman on loan and put him straight into the team.
With Woodman, who has subsequently won the Under-20 World Cup with England this summer, now back at his parent club, MacDonald, who has started all three of his team’s Betfred Cup matches this summer, hopes he is now back in pole position. “It’s been great to be back in the team,” said the former Hearts and Falkirk goalkeeper. “The last six months of last season were obviously difficult for me. When you spend about four and a half years playing week in, week out and all of a sudden that stops, it is difficult.
“As a goalkeeper, it’s not a position where you can play players half an hour here and there. You’re basically waiting for an injury or a loss of form so it’s difficult, but it makes you stronger. It’s something I’ve had to deal with in the past. More recently, I’ve not had to deal with it but it’s given me a hunger and an eagerness to get back in and make sure it doesn’t happen again. I’ve come back fit in pre-season and I’m raring to go. I’m feeling good right now – it’s just a case of getting games and getting my sharpness back.”
Kilmarnock are searching for a new goalkeeper to compete with MacDonald and have been linked with Dundee United’s Cammy Bell, but the current custodian is focused on making himself impossible for Lee McCulloch to drop. “I’ve not had a chat with the manager about my situation,” he said. “I’ll just come in and train every day and try to perform to the best of my ability and make sure the manager picks me at the weekend. It doesn’t matter where you are – that’s what you have to do.”
Kris Boyd’s clinical double saw off Annan amid torrential rainfall at Galabank as Kilmarnock, who lost their Betfred Cup opener away to bitter rivals Ayr United, moved to the top of Group E. It was the veteran striker’s first goals of the season after a couple of games against Ayr and Clyde in which he had been the subject of criticism from supporters. “The big man’s been a bit frustrated in the last couple of games because he’s not had many chances to score," said MacDonald. "But he’s a natural goal-scorer and his two finishes against Annan were outstanding, especially the second one.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel