BILLY STARK believes Scotland's hopes of qualifying for the European under-21 championship finals are in safe hands with Jamie MacDonald.
The young Hearts keeper has flourished since his loan spell with First Division Queen of the South last season, which culminated with the Doonhamers facing Rangers in the Scottish Cup final.
MacDonald is now back at Hearts and played in place of S
teve Banks at Ibrox last weekend, although he may drop back out of the side for the game against St Mirren to make way for new signing Marian Kello.
However, Stark believes that his spell with Gordon Chisholm's side will stand him in good stead for the future, both domestically and at national level.
Scotland take on Lithuania in a crucial qualifying match tonight and the under-21 boss, who has made MacDonald his number one choice between the sticks, said: "It was an unbelievable experience for him to have played in the Scottish Cup final at the end of last season.
"Jamie is only one of them, there are probably lots of others that you could use as an example, where players have gone out on loan and it has turned out to be a fantastic platform for them. If you get the right team then it can really bring them on and establish them as first-team players in their own right which can help them massively."
Stark named five stars from the Capital in his squad for tonight's qualifying match against Lithuania – having already lost Christophe Berra and Steven Fletcher to the full team over the last few months.
Stark said: "You would always hope to have a fair percentage of your team coming from the east coast because Hibs and Hearts are big teams in Scottish football.
"I know that Hearts particularly have maybe gone through a spell where they have used a lot of foreign players, but they are still producing good players of their own.
"Lee Wallace and Jamie MacDonald both played against Rangers at the weekend and did well and, although Calum has had his difficulties in recent times with the club, he was always regarded as a great talent when he was younger. So hopefully he has not lost that at all."
Elliot has indeed been through the mill this season but Stark believes that the young striker has more than enough quality to turn it around this season, no matter where he ends up playing his football.
The 21-year-old has been frozen out at Tynecastle in recent months but Stark continued: "That happens in football, you go through periods where you get peaks and troughs and Calum has had a hard time lately but we are hoping that he can come away from that environment and enjoy being involved with us and it can maybe help to get him back to what we know he can do.
"I think that when you have got a chance at first-team level when you are 18 or 19 years of age then it would be unusual to go into the starting 11 and stay there forever more.
"You go in and then come back out, hopefully learn a bit more and then the next time that you get your opportunity you have a bit more in your locker, you have more experience, and you have got more chance of grabbing your opportunity with both hands.
"Lewis and Ross Campbell and Calum and people like that are in that position, but they shouldn't be downhearted about it. They should look on it as a great opportunity to come away with the national team and add to their experience."
The full article contains 617 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
