JAMIE McCart hopes he has played his way into Friday night's Highland showdown between Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Rangers.
The 19-year-old central defender, son of former Motherwell player and Celtic head of youth Chris, was an assured presence alongside Louis Laing at the heart of a reshaped Inverness backline at Tynecastle in the second game of his loan spell from the Parkhead side.
Experienced duo Gary Warren and Brad McKay are available again after suspension but McCart savoured the experience of earning a point at Tynecastle and with Inverness showing signs of life at the foot of the Premiership table - albeit still two points adrift - he would love to play his part in Friday night's televised match at the Caledonian Stadium.
"It is a hostile environment coming here, something you would never experience playing Under-20s with Celtic," said McCart. "That is why I am so glad that the manager and Inverness gave me this opportunity. I have started today so hopefully there was enough in my performance to keep in his thoughts for next Friday. But every game is the same to me.
"My dad just said that it would be a great opportunity for me, first just to try to break into the first XI and try to get some games under my belt," he added. "I am just trying to constantly improve and learn, and feel that I am doing that with the manager and the coaching staff. They have been in lots of close contact with me and I can see it paying off already. My mentality is always the same. I don't focus on that bottom of the table thing, I don't think any of the lads do.
"If I do get the nod to play against Rangers it will be much different to play in an Under-20 match against them with Celtic. There will be a much bigger crowd there for a start. But looking ahead to a tough game like that next Friday this was probably just what we needed, a bit of a boost."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here