NEW arrival Kyle MacDonald is relishing the challenge of making his mark on Athletic and his set his goal on a Premiership return.

The 21-year-old full back became Stevie Crawford’s first signing of the January transfer window when he agreed a two-and-a-half year deal to move from Airdrieonians on January 15.

If football below the Championship resumes, MacDonald will rejoin the League One Diamonds on loan until the end of the season but the Motherwell youth academy product is determined to force his way into the reckoning quickly at his new club.

The East Kilbride native - who was on the bench for Saturday's draw with Ayr United - joined the 'Well at the age of 10 and remained at Fir Park until 2019.

He then joined Lanarkshire rivals Airdrie and went on to become a regular on the right-hand side of their defence, making 43 appearances in all competitions, which attracted Crawford’s interest.

Speaking to Press Sport, MacDonald explained: “I’m really happy. It is a step up and I can tell already with a couple of days’ training that the standards are higher and the players are just technically a bit better.

“Dunfermline are doing really well just now and I think that’s what made me more attracted to going to a team like them, rather than going to a team that’s maybe not doing so well at the moment.

“People might say it might make it harder to get into the team but I’m confident in myself that I’m good enough to play at this level so I just need to try and fight to get into the team.

“The team’s doing really well and, for me to come in, I just want to help that. I don’t know what my role’s going to be at this point but my aim is to be playing games no matter where I am.

“I’m going to try and push myself, try and get in the team, and if I’m pushing myself and I’m maybe not playing as much as I think, but I know I’m working hard and training hard, that’s going to make other people do well to get themselves in the starting squad.

“It’s just a win-win. If I’m doing really well and I’m not able to play, that must mean I’m pushing the team on.

“It’s a good environment to be in.”

MacDonald revealed that the attention on Airdrie’s summer signing Thomas Robert – son of former Newcastle United star Laurent – had provided an opportunity to impress, and was delighted that it worked out that way.

“With Airdrie, we had the French signing in the summer, Thomas Robert, and he obviously attracted a few scouts to come and watch our games,” he continued.

“I saw that as an opportunity for myself to show what I could do. I knew there was a few scouts coming to the games and I’d been speaking to my agent, and he’d been saying there had been teams looking at me.

“It was about a week before I signed that he told me that Dunfermline had been watching me, they’d been impressed and were going to approach Airdrie about signing me. We both discussed it and we thought it was a good move for me because it’s a step up into a good team.

“Obviously, I’ve got the loan back to Airdrie if the season continues there, so I think it’s a good platform for me and I’ve got more coaches to learn from. I think it’s a good place for me to try and play and improve.

“You see the stadium, they’ve got a good fanbase – all things like that were attracting me to go and play there. You’ve got the coaching stuff and I can learn from them; you’ve got Steven Whittaker, an experienced player, the two assistants and obviously the manager.

“I think it’s a really good place for me to go and develop and, just from the first two days, it seems like it’s going to be like that.”