ALFIE BAVIDGE believes playing regular football with Kelty Hearts has played a major role in helping him score an "unreal" international hat-trick.

The 17-year-old, who is on loan from Aberdeen, recently travelled to Croatia with Scotland's under-19 squad for two friendly matches, against Türkiye and Latvia.

He started both fixtures, which were arranged ahead of UEFA Euro 2024 Elite Round fixtures in March, and ended in a 1-0 defeat and a 4-0 victory.

In the latter, Bavidge netted a first half treble, taking his tally to four goals for the under-19s in nine caps.

That came just 13 days after he had scored the first hat-trick of his senior career, in a win for Kelty at Edinburgh City, and told Press Sport: "It was a good experience to be fair and I'm just glad I got my goals.

"There's obviously another camp next month, but I'm not sure what's happening with that yet. It was a good experience and I'm just buzzing to get my goals. It was unreal and I got the ball as well. That's two of them now - I didn't realise it would come so quick!

"It's all I can really do, is just keep trying to score as many goals as I can, for whatever team, and just play well. I never saw it coming but hopefully I can keep that up.

"It's big games coming up, I think it is the Euro qualifiers, so fingers crossed I'm involved with that. It'll be a tough group, tough games, but I've got belief in the squad we can go and do well.

Central Fife Times: Kelty Hearts were edged out by League One leaders Falkirk on Saturday.

"Coming here has benefited me amazing amounts and the coaches back at Aberdeen can see the progress that I'm making. The gaffer here can see the progress and I just don't want to stop. I want to keep getting better, keep learning, because there's lots of good lads in there that I can learn from.

"It's been an amazing experience and I can only thank the club for that."

Billy Stark's young Scotland side will compete in the Elite Round of UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying at the end of March in Italy, who they will face alongside Czechia and Georgia in Group Five.

Before then, Bavidge will hope to continue to stake his claim for a place in the squad by adding to the seven goals he has scored for Kelty so far.

He felt he should've had an eighth against Falkirk on Saturday, when he forced Nicky Hogarth into a smart save almost straight from kick off, commenting: "I know I should score that.

"I think Rossco (Ross Cunningham) had one, he said he should've scored it - it's all wee fine margins. If you tuck them away then God knows what the score would've been at the end of the game.

"We'll just have to put it past us, get back into training this week, and see how we get on next Saturday."