Mac glad to be back in business

MAIN MAN: Charlie MacDonald was Athletic’s stand-out player against MK Dons on Tuesday night.

CHARLIE MacDonald hopes he has done enough to earn another starting spot at Tranmere - so he can right some wrongs.

The striker marked the end of a four-match exile from the side against his former club, MK Dons, by emphatically netting a second-half header from a Gary Harkins corner kick.

In doing so, the former Brentford forward registered only the second goal scored by an Athletic striker in 2014 — a dozen games in.

While MacDonald harassed and harried, putting many of his team-mates to shame with an energetic display, he admitted the awful first-half showing, in which Athletic went two goals down, cost the team any chance of making back-to-back victories.

The task now is to use the frustration — and the improvement on show in the second period — to avenge the loss to Tranmere last time out.

“Tranmere beat us here, albeit with a flukey result,” said Chronicle columnist MacDonald, the sponsors’ choice as Tuesday’s home man of the match. “Seeing them not have a shot all game and then take the three points with a penalty at the end was daylight robbery. We owe them one.”

MacDonald’s goal against Dons took him to five for the season, making him the team’s leading scorer despite injuries that have restricted him to 19 appearances - seven as a sub.

In that time, he has had a host of different strike partners.

Fellow forward Jon Stead, on loan from Huddersfield, may end up blocking the path to a consistent run should manager Lee Johnson revert to playing only one up front. But as long as he is putting the ball in the net when he gets on to the field, MacDonald is simply playing his part to perfection.

Getting a goal boosted his chance of keeping his place: “That is what I want to do. Whoever I am playing up front with makes no difference as long as I am playing.”