Raith Rovers goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald is looking forward to today’s clash at Alloa after admitting the Wasps helped him fall back in love with football.
The 34-year-old played 18 times for the club between last September and February as part of an emergency loan move from Kilmarnock.
It was a welcome return to regular football for the former Hearts keeper at the Indodrill stadium after being shunned by then Killie boss Angelo Alessio.
MacDonald is targeting three points with Raith this afternoon but admits he remains grateful to Alloa for his short stint at the part-timers.
‘Loan move came at a low point for me’
MacDonald said: “I loved my time there and I can’t speak highly enough of Alloa.
“It came at a low point for me in the last couple of years, I wasn’t wanted at Kilmarnock under Angelo Alessio.
“I was out of favour, not playing games and out of squads.
“It was a great opportunity for me to go and play there under Peter Grant and it’s a time that I loved it.
“It made me fall back in love with football a bit again. They’re a great group of boys and from Mike Mulraney the owner to the tea lady, they were all fantastic with me.
“They pride themselves on being the best part-time team in Scotland and you can see why because they’ve got a great togetherness.”
Potential for entertainment
Alloa are renowned for being a team that is easy on the eye under former Celtic midfielder Grant.
And given that Raith also play a similar style, MacDonald reckons today’s clash should be an entertaining counter.
He added: “Under Peter Grant, they’re a good football team and that’s one of the things I took from last year.
“The quality of player was unreal, they like to get it down.
“The Boxing Day game will be an exciting game because we probably have similar styles.”
Fourth place Raith are desperate to get back on track following a run of three winless games, the latest coming on December 11 in a goalless clash at Ayr United.
MacDonald added: “We actually played really well in the game against Ayr, I’ve had a couple of saves to make on the break but it did not happen for us in front of goal.
“We’re happy with the way we’ve started but it’s important now we try and kick on and up the level again and get some wins.”
Injury returns
Meanwhile, Alloa boss Grant is hopeful of getting some of his injured players back against Raith after losing star man Alan Trouten just minutes before last weekend’s win over Inverness.
Grant’s son Ray, Stefan Scougall and Scott Taggart all joined Trouten in missing the 2-1 victory over Caley Thistle.
He said: “The boys are all desperate to play but I can’t afford to lose players if they’re not right.
“We’ve had a lot of issues but we got through last weekend’s game and hopefully we’ll have a few more of the boys this week.”
