‘Caley teens should look to MacGregor’

the club for his finishing, but it was a tremendous finish and we were all delighted for the wee man because his attitude is first class.”

Wilson believes that MacGregor’s self-belief is only going to soar on the back of producing big moments like that consistently.

He added: “He is getting more confident as every game passes. He realises he is a big part of the squad.

“That’s huge. You don’t get a natural confidence until you’re maybe 21 or 22 and you’ve played between 50 and 100 games for the club.

“You’re always looking to improve yourself and with that comes pressure from yourself. Roddy has got over that now as we saw on Saturday.”

Looking at the loanees and the opportunities granted to them at Nairn, Clach, Brora and Strathspey, Wilson feels the time is right for them to mix it in the men’s game.

He added: “We felt it was better for their development to now go and play against men in real competitive football compared to playing under-18s every Friday afternoon.

“Hopefully they will go and do themselves justice in the Highland League.

“The players know they will need to earn their place in the teams and I’m sure they will do that. We’ll keep an eye on all their progress.

“Clach and Strathspey are playing on Friday, so hopefully we can see how Lewis and Robbie at Clach and Ethan at Strathspey will start off.

Wilson explained that the impact of Covid had a knock-on effect in terms of stalling the young players’ progress last season.

“But the signs this summer have been encouraging,” he added.

“We felt, after last year being a non-event for these players, it was so important that they played games this year.”