Great Scott truly is the Bhoy in a million as goals keep on coming

The same figure would still get a laugh now if mentioned in the same sentence as McDonald, but for entirely different reasons.

Gordon Strachan' s bargain £650,000 buy has already scored 21 goals for the Hoops, drawing a rare blank for Australia yesterday in their 3-0 World Cup qualifying win against Qatar in his home town of Melbourne.

Scroll down for more

Former Fir Park boss Malpas, now in charge at English League One outfit Swindon, hasn't been surprised by McDonald's impact at Parkhead and believes the man once freed by Southampton may yet hit the big time in England.

"Scott has done extremely well for Celtic but I never doubted he would score goals for them," said Malpas. "I wasn't joking last January when I said he was worth at least £1m in the current transfer market. I firmly believed that at the time but, of course, Scott was heading towards the last year of his contract by the time he was sold.

"Rangers had offered something like £400,000 on the last day of January but that really would have been steal of the century. He was always going to score more goals for Celtic than he did at Motherwell because everyone knows he is playing with better players who are making a lot of chances.

"He scored 16 for Motherwell last season, so it has been no surprise to see him break 20 already. I think many people would fancy him now to reach 30 goals and I think he can do it.

"When he is on form and confident, Scott is always a threat and he will now feel that scoring 30 in his first season at Celtic is within his reach.

"That would be an incredible achievement because not too many people have done that at Parkhead over the years apart from Henrik Larsson."

With English clubs increasingly looking north for bargains, Malpas feels the real difficulty for Celtic in a year or so may be keeping hold of the Aussie.

"There must be a chance that will happen and I'm not certain if there is a sell- on clause that would benefit Motherwell," he said. "They have just landed a major windfall for having the foresight to insert a clause when James McFadden was sold to Everton for £1.25m.

"I think the time will come when major English clubs will be looking at Scott. Certainly, if he keeps scoring at the rate he has done. And people often forget that he is only 24. He has plenty of time for his career to develop and, maybe in a couple of years, he will fancy a move.

"My only reservation about him is how he handles it if he has a spell when he's not scoring. How he reacts to that will be really important. It will be much harder to cope with at Celtic, where there is so much scrutiny, than it was for him at Fir Park."

Malpas has also watched another former charge, Ross McCormack, blossom at Motherwell this season after being bedevilled by illness and injury when he first brought him to the Lanarkshire club from Rangers.

Mark McGhee's star asset has stalled on a new contract with his current deal due to expire in the summer — and the likes of Middlesbrough and Wigan remain interested.

But Malpas sounded a note of caution over McCormack making a hasty exit from the SPL. "I think Ross has to think very carefully indeed about his next move," he said. "If we are honest, this is really his first season of first-team football. While he has been playing well, can he keep it going?

"He has to ask himself if he will be a first pick when he moves elsewhere. That should influence his choice and arguably the best scenario would be to sign a new deal for Motherwell and play a bit longer in the SPL.

"I think his head could drop if he was just a bit-part player at a big English club. So it really is a vital decision for him, but it's good news already for Motherwell fans that he is staying to the end of the season at the very least."