There were question marks over Alex MacDonald’s career ahead of this season - so no wonder Saturday’s winning goal meant so much.

MacDonald headed home in the first minute of stoppage-time at Priestfield, scoring the goal that won the game against Sutton United 1-0.

• Manager's delight over Macca's winner

A knee injury last season could have ended the midfielder’s career in his early thirties but 11 months of rehab, and plenty of hard work off the pitch, meant he was able to cherish some more memorable moments on the field.

MacDonald said: “I think I had forgotten what it felt like to score an important goal, or just a goal in general, it was a nice moment, especially when all the lads embraced me and you could see what it meant to the fans.

“To have been off for 11 months, you dream of moments like that, getting back and scoring infront of a packed Priestfield. It happened and it was a great feeling.

“The biggest thing for me was how pleased my team-mates were when we were all in the huddle after the celebration, it meant a lot, all of those hard days, long hours in the gym and I am still continuing to do that, I had been in the gym every morning all week, for moments like that it certainly pays off.”

MacDonald made a telling impact off the bench, working hard to unsettle the Sutton defence. He helped create the winner, setting up striker Scott Kashket with a shot and when the keeper parried, he was on hand to guide the ball home.

“It felt good,” he said. “First of all for the team because of where we are at the moment, it is well documented we have not been scoring enough goals, we have been involved in games when we have been on top and not scored and not put games to bed, we have been losing, our performances have been questions and rightly so, but we stood up to a very physical team and in the end came out worthy winners. To be the one to score the goal meant quite a lot.

“It was a great feeling for me personally but more importantly for the football club.”

MacDonald was certainly in the thick of it and wasn’t getting bullied either, getting one back on the Sutton United skipper Craig Eastmond.

He said: “When a player deliberately treads on your foot when you walk past him, I am not going to let him get away with that. I think 30 seconds later he was eating grass!”

MacDonald's clearly enjoying being out there again. There were times when a question mark hung over his career after that knee injury.

Looking back, he said: “I tried things that didn’t work and had set-backs and it seemed to be one thing after another, there were times I was sat in the gym thinking ‘am I ever going to come back from this?’

“You fear the worst, especially when I was 32, these things are not the best past 30 as a footballer. There were some days where it was seriously considered whether I would (come back) but I tried something else. I had a lot of support of people around me, people in the game who had knee injuries and to be fair the specialist I had in Harley Street, London, they were saying ‘let’s not give up, let’s try something else’ and the last thing they did seemed to put me over the finish line and onto the pitch.”

It was a gruelling summer for MacDonald, getting back towards his “fighting weight” as manager Neil Harris described it. But prior to Saturday’s game he felt good and ready to start a league game again.

Harris opted to return Jordan Green to the XI, but ironically an injury to him on Saturday paved the way for MacDonald to come off the bench and prove what he can still do.

He said: “I haven’t played much football so far this season but I told the manager earlier in the week that although I had been out for a long period of time, I didn’t want that to be used against me. [I said to him] ‘I am telling you now I am fit and raring to go’. Hopefully for the short period of time I was on the pitch I showed that I am ready to go and play.”

There was no partying afterwards for MacDonald, who was keen to get home after media duties post-match to spend the evening with his young daughter, before coming back to work with a spring in his step this week.

Looking ahead now, MacDonald said: “It is certainly a happy dressing room and a dressing room with enough experience to know that it is one game, it doesn’t mean anything.

"We have to go on now and make sure that one win turns into two and three games and we get used to hitting the back of the net again, then we will soon start to climb this table.”