Macdonald in line for Scots call after being bright spark in North win

Charlie Macdonald climbs electricity pylons in his day job and his bright display for the North under-21s is set to earn him a Scotland under-21 debut against Ireland in Inverness in October. Inverness’ Macdonald scored what proved the winner with 17 minutes to go at Ballachulish and then scored again four minutes later to sink South hopes and make himself a strong candidate for an international debut. Drew MacNeil, the former Scotland manager who is Macdonald’s club manager at Bught, in tandem with new Scotland under-21 manager Allan MacRae, was delighted with the 20-year-old’s display. “Charlie also hit the bar with an effort in the first half, so was unlucky not to get his hat-trick, but he played really well indeed and has done his cap chances no harm,” said MacNeil. “I asked him to do himself justice on his North debut and he certainly did that. “When he joined us a couple of years ago he was overweight but Charlie has worked his socks off to get himself in to the condition where he can make the most of his talent. All that hard work is now paying off. If he gets his cap it will be great for Charlie as we were hoping he’d get picked last year but it didn’t happen. This is his last chance to be eligible at this level. “But it would also be huge for the Inverness club to have a player meriting international recognition. It was a boost to have someone even in the North under21 side. “Dave Glass, around 10 years ago, with the under-21s would have been the last Inverness player capped and Charlie making his mark is considerable encouragement for all the club’s younger players.” Macdonald being selected to start the representative game was a sign of the confidence MacRae and North manager Calum MacLeod had in the player and he certainly made the most of his opportunity.