HE'S become the talk of the Wee County and every week the clamour for his loan move to become a permanent deal grows.

But, it's easy to forget before Peter Grant came calling that Jamie MacDonald was in danger of becoming one of Scottish football's forgotten men.

The Kilmarnock stopper, who joined the Wasps in an emergency loan deal following a devastating injury to number one Neil Parry, has excelled for Alloa in recent weeks and has made more saves than any other goalkeeper in the SPFL.

It's not so long ago he was watching from the sidelines as Daniel Bachmann stole the show in Ayrshire, keeping MacDonald away from league action from October until the final day of last season.

Killie's loss was Alloa's gain and while Grant admits MacDonald's future is out of his hands he has revelled in seeing the player blossom after handing him a chance when no other club did.

"Everyone is talking about Jamie right now and yet no one touched him [at the start of the season]," Grant said.

"Jamie has been very good for us and I think we've been very good for Jamie. People tend to forget he hadn't played [a lot of football].

"He's a fantastic professional and I am delighted for him but the situation is that as soon as Neil is fit Jamie has to go back.

"Neil is a long, long way off and I am hoping we can keep Jamie but that's not really in our hands.

"We don't know what Kilmarnock are going to be up to especially with the change of management."

MacDonald put in another man-of-the-match display as the Wasps were held to a 1-1 draw by Partick Thistle for the third time this season.

He produced a string of fine saves – notably from Kenny Miller and Reece Cole – before he looked to have made himself the hero when he pushed away Stuart Bannigan's penalty.

But, after already incurring the wrath of Grant for awarding the first spot kick for an innocuous looking Robbie Deas handball, David Munro once again pointed for a foul when Blair Malcolm touched Joe Cardle in the back.

Bannigan made no mistake the second time of asking as he cancelled out Adam Brown's opener and both sides settled for a point.

Grant, however, was left less than enthused by Munro's performance.

He continued: "I said after the first penalty that he [the referee] is desperate to give another one and I hardly had the words out of my mouth when the next one was given.

"How can the ball be going 30 yards by the post and over the bar become a penalty kick? I've watched it back and Cardle has actually fallen as young Blair has put his hands in his back.

"He gives a penalty kick which is disgusting to be perfectly honest with you.

"You see two teams who are trying to win a game of football and I am just disgusted someone else has taken the headlines.

"[There needs to be] dialogue between the referees and assessors who come to the games to tell us what they think of decisions.

"If you look at what happens instead of coming back and apologising when mistakes are made.

"Managers lose their jobs and players get criticised for missing chances but these guys just go away.

"They can have ten players up the stairs watching them but it doesn't matter because nobody hears what they do.

"There was another incident where the ball falls and hits a boy on the hand. He doesn't mean it, but if it hits his hand then that's a penalty kick."