LEWIS O'DONNELL says he's "buzzing" to have the chance to shine in Scottish football's most prestigious tournament - and has looked to one of Kelty Hearts' League One rivals for inspiration.

The on-loan Dundee United midfielder, who recently extended his stay at New Central Park until the end of the season, is set to feature for Michael Tidser's side when they travel to Ayr United for their fourth round tie on Saturday.

O'Donnell, 18, wasn't permitted to feature in the previous round, in which Kelty progressed thanks to a fine victory at Hamilton Academical, but should be able to take part at Somerset Park.

Whilst he acknowledges that tackling the Championship side, who earlier this week parted with head coach, Lee Bullen, he sees no reason why the 'Maroon Machine' can't try and emulate current League One leaders Falkirk, who last season reached the semi-finals.

"Playing a team in the league above is always a great opportunity to go and impress people and show you can play at that higher level," he told Press Sport.

"As well as that, the Scottish Cup is a huge tournament in the country, so you want to do well for the club and go far in the competition as well.

"You see even Falkirk last year in the same league, they went really far, so there's no reason why we can't do that as well. That's what we're looking to do.

"I think a lot of people wrote us off to be fair in the last round against Hamilton, and we went and proved that we could comfortably beat them down there. No disrespect to Hamilton, they are a very good side, and I think them and Falkirk are running away with this league to be fair, but just on the day we showed that we were the better team on the day and went through to the next round. We thoroughly deserved that.

"I wasn't able to play in the last round but I think Dundee United are going to let me play, so I'm buzzing with it. Obviously, playing in the Scottish Cup is a big thing, so I'm delighted."

Kelty go into the tie on the back of a draw with Annan Athletic at the weekend, which saw them pegged back from a winning position, and O'Donnell added: "I thought we deserved to win the game, if anything. I think we just need to be more clinical in the chances we make and, even when we are 1-0 up, we need to do better to see the game out.

"It's a well-worked goal from Annan. That's their game plan, to get the ball up as fast as they can, then win second balls and play off that. We should've been expecting that towards the end, but it's just frustrating. We should've seen the game out a lot better.

"The message is the same all the time. We never change the way we play, no matter what situation we're in, who we're playing, we'll play the same way all the time. It's just frustrating that we couldn't come away with three points."