Inside story on Hearts' Macaulay Tait: The scout who discovered him, Celtic link and the Billy Gilmour quality

The fascinating backstory of Riccarton's latest youth academy graduate

Tucked away in a modest corner of north Edinburgh is the football cage which became centre stage for Macaulay Tait to perform. Ten years ago he was an eight-year-old playing for his local team, Lochend Boys Club, later renamed Lochend Football Academy. Their facility just off Lochend Road South is where the young Tait was first spotted, but not by Hearts.

The irony of his senior debut for the Tynecastle side last month was not lost on the scout who first identified the diminutive midfielder's talent. When Tait trotted onto the Celtic Park pitch as a late Hearts substitute during a rare 2-0 win in Glasgow's east end, David Kinross allowed himself a wry smile. He recalls scouting Tait for Celtic back in 2013 and was later involved at Hearts when the player switched clubs.

Ten years of sacrifice, hard graft and determination have taken Tait from Celtic to Hearts, through every age-group of the Riccarton youth academy and into the first team. It all started just over a decade ago with a fairly speculative visit by the then-Celtic scout Kinross to that seven-a-side cage on the edge of Lochend Park. He would go back for another look again and again, captivated by Tait's maturity, intelligence and composure. He also noticed a specific quality he had seen in only one other player - a certain Billy Gilmour.

"When I was first watching Macaulay, it was with a view for him to go into Celtic," Kinross told the Edinburgh News. "He was eight years old, playing for Lochend in a seven-a-side game. The reason I went to see Lochend was that their coach was very good and his team played good football. They weren't a Hutchie Vale or a Tynecastle and were just emerging as a top youth team in Edinburgh.

"There were two outstanding players in that side. One was Macaulay and the other was a lad called Matthew Sankey - who would later end up at Hearts and is now at Whitehill Welfare. The way Celtic were, you didn't take two players from the same team. They had a development centre for the east of Scotland at Little Kerse, one in Glasgow and one in Ayrshire. Macaulay initially went into Little Kerse for training.

"I'd seen Billy Gilmour at Rangers, he was four years older than Macaulay and way beyond his years with how he found space on a football pitch. Going out to see Lochend, Macaulay was creating the same sort of space as Billy Gilmour despite being significantly younger.

"Billy was tiny but he always popped up to receive the ball. I'm not saying Macaulay is exactly the same player as Billy because they are different ages. He was the first eight-year-old I saw who had that awareness about him. Matthew was a left-sided forward and some of the balls Macaulay would play through for him were fantastic. Then he would make a run, but an intelligent run. He would angle his run instead of just going straight for goal.

"Remember, in a team of eight-year-olds, if somebody is running forward with the ball, half the team is charging towards goal running past the ball. Macaulay always had good spacial awareness so he didn't do that. I decided to go back two or three times to watch him. I wanted to make sure that, when he was finding that space, it wasn't just a coincidence."

Training places at Celtic are not handed out lightly, so Kinross had to be certain that any youngster he recommended had the required talent. Several more trips to Lochend confirmed Tait met the criteria. "Macaualy always had an idea of what he was going to do with the ball when he received it. That was beyond his years at that age," explained Kinross. "His work-rate was excellent as well. Out of possession, he would work so hard. The other thing about him was the family support he had around him. That's more important that people think. They just wanted the best for him and he was a really level-headed kid.

"Eight-year-olds are usually quite boisterous or quite shy. You very rarely get a kid at that age who is really level-headed. His work-rate was also excellent. As I said, I went to watch him and Matthew Sankey a few times. Places were so limited in those Celtic development centres that scouts had to really make a case for a player to go it. I decided Macaulay was the player who had the best chance.

"When he went in there, you wouldn't say: 'Oh, he's definitely going to make it.' You can't tell at that age. However, there were just so many positives attributes about him and no negatives. It was a no-brainer."

Kinross left Celtic and joined the Hearts scouting system not long afterwards. He quickly made Roger Arnott, the Riccarton academy manager at the time, aware of Tait. It made sense for all parties when the player made the same move from Celtic to Hearts.

"When I went over to Hearts from Celtic, I had conversations with Roger Arnott about Macaulay Tait and Matthew Sankey. Matthew was already in at Hearts and we managed to get Macaulay in from Celtic as well. Roger spoke very highly of them both," recalled Kinross.

"Macaulay had been promoted from Celtic's regional development centre at Little Kerse to the Glasgow one at Barrowfield. You can imagine, these are eight-year-old kids going to Glasgow three times a week for training nights. They were getting home at half past 10. That's very difficult for someone from the north side of Edinburgh. The travel was a lot and, for a lot of the eastern-based players at Celtic, it just became too much for them and their parents."

Tait regularly played in older age-group sides whilst progressing through the Hearts development system. Head coach Steven Naismith developed an admiration for him whilst coaching the club's B team last season and made it a priority to integrate him at first-team level. Tait's senior debut finally came against Celtic on 16 December, and was followed by his second appearance the following week against St Mirren.

At 18, he is the latest protégé to emerge from the Riccarton youth academy in recent years after Finlay Pollock and Aidan Denholm. Those who remember his formative years in the humble surroundings of Lochend are entitled to draw on a sense of satisfaction.

"That's right. It's just great to see young kids coming through, especially ones who have such a good attitude," said Kinross. "Nothing ruffled Macaulay, he wasn't a massive character, although he wasn't shy. He just came from a very nice family.

"When he made his Hearts debut it was brilliant. I haven't seen Macaulay for years and years. You just remember the kid who was in at training and working so hard. You can't dismiss that commitment to 10 years of academy football. It's a massive commitment for the player and their family. To see a family support and sustain that for such a long period, it's not all that common. I'm glad it's all working out for them."