Elgin City attacker Daniel MacKay hopes he has laid the foundations for a fruitful partnership with Caley Thistle bound forward Shane Sutherland next season.
MacKay, who is on loan the League 2 side from Inverness, will link up with Sutherland in the summer after the forward signed a pre-contract to return for a second spell at Caledonian Stadium.
Sutherland has earned a return to full-time football following a prolific campaign in which he has netted 23 goals for the Black and Whites.
MacKay is confident the Wick-born forward can make a successful leap through the divisions, and he said: “I have become quite close with Shane over the past few months.
“He knows what I can do now, and I know the kind of service he wants.
“Hopefully that can shine through next year if we get the opportunity to play next to each other.
“It’s a good relationship we seem to have. He’s a smart footballer, he knows what to do.
“He has played at the top for a reason and you can see that in League 2 at times – he can be unplayable.
“I can see him easily being able to step up. I know it might be a big jump from League 2 to the Championship, but he’s got the qualities there.
“He is strong, and once he pins a defender back, players in any league would struggle to cope with him.
“I think he will do well at Caley Thistle. If he can emulate the goals he has scored, who knows what could happen.”
MacKay earlier this month signed an extension to his own Borough Briggs spell, which will see him remain with Gavin Price’s men until the end of the season.
The 18-year-old is intent on adding more goals to his game, having netted his third of the campaign in last week’s 3-2 loss to Stenhousemuir.
He added: “As the loan was coming to an end I was speaking to the manager to see what would happen with me.
“He was asking how I thought I had got on, the aspects I had enjoyed and what I needed to improve on.
“The main thing from my point of view was to score more goals, and maybe take more chances.
“That’s the difference between youth level, where I maybe get five or six chances a game, and the first team where it’s only two or three.
“They are chances you need to take. Being more clinical is maybe an aspect I need to work on. Hopefully in the next part of the season I can improve on that.
“I have always scored goals at youth level – it’s just the transition from being a youth player into the first team environment, and that pressure of having to take chances when they come.”
Despite last week’s defeat, Elgin remain just two points adrift of the promotion play-off positions ahead of today’s trip to Stirling Albion.
MacKay says his side must start scrapping out victories regardless of performances, adding: “There are four or five teams all looking at that fourth spot.
“The focus at the moment is just to try and get some wins – no matter how bad we are playing.
“It seems to be we need to be three or four goals up before we can relax.
“It’s the same with other teams. We always seem to be winning a game and then we drop points.
“We just need to start grinding out results and not really worry about how we play.”
