QUEEN of the South loan keeper Jamie MacDonald has revealed his Scottish Cup final appearance has inspired him to replicate it with Hearts when he returns to Tynecastle next season.
The 22-year-old joined the Palmerston club last summer looking for first-team football but he could not have envisaged a cup run that took Queens to the final for the first time in the club's history, only to lose 3-2 to Rangers at Hampden.
Now Ma
cDonald is hoping to use his first final appearance as a spur when he reports for pre-season training.
He said: "I still have a year left at Hearts. I'm back on June 25 for pre-season training and I just need to take it from there.
"But that final has given me the taste for big games. Obviously I wasn't expecting to play in a Scottish Cup final when I came to Queens on loan but I would definitely like to do that again.
"Even though we got beat, it was a great experience and I still enjoyed my day in front of a capacity crowd. It's something I will strive to do again."
"I will go back to Hearts a better player," MacDonald added.
"There is a massive difference between playing reserve games with no crowds to playing week in, week out with a crowd.
"And obviously games like the semi-final and the final of the Scottish Cup in front of 50,000 is only going to do me good.
"I thought I dealt with it pretty well, I didn't let the occasion get to me so it has given me the taste and hopefully I get the chance to do it again next year."
MacDonald still has a lingering sense of disappointment following Saturday's exciting final, where Queens fought back from a 2-0 half-time deficit before succumbing to Rangers' prolific striker Kris Boyd for the second time in the game.
MacDonald said: "We didn't do ourselves justice in the first half but we played really well in the second half."
The full article contains 352 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
