Hearts great Mackay believes Temps can reach the highest level

Templeton's overhead kick, which led to Hearts' opening goal against the Steelmen on Tuesday night, not only caught defender Mark Reynolds off guard but also caught the imagination of those sitting in the stands and watching on television.

That the 21-year-old winger had not only the confidence but also the ability to attempt such a shot further fuelled hopes that Hearts have a real talent on their hands. And just last week Templeton's former manager at Stenhousemuir, Campbell Money, told the Evening News how much he reckoned the winger's value had soared recently.

Mackay certainly thinks so and believes that the world can be Templeton's oyster if he continues to develop in the way that he has done over the past five years. Mackay said: "I shouldn't be surprised by how well this young man has done. He has proved a lot of people wrong and now has an opportunity to go on and reach an even higher level, the way that he is playing just now.

"The overhead kick that he produced for the opening goal was just fantastic and you have got to be flying to go out and try that in front of a crowd and a TV audience.

"I could see Allan Johnston having tried something like that but people like Walter Kidd or Jimmy Sandison, or even myself trying something like that, you have to be on fire and at this moment in time David Templeton is. What makes it all the better is that he is also in a team that is on fire right now and getting good results one after the other."

Templeton started his professional career back in 2005 with second division Stenhousemuir and went on to make 36 first-team appearances, scoring 11 goals in the process, before signing for Hearts in January 2007.

It has proved to be a shrewd piece of business for the Tynecastle club with Templeton picking up a host of man-of-the-match awards this season and being named the Clydesdale Bank Premier League's Young Player of the Month for November recently (pictured above).

There's no doubt that Templeton's stock is on the rise but Mackay believes that some of the credit for the way that he has developed both as a player and a person has to go to the Hearts manager Jim Jefferies and his assistant Billy Brown.

Mackay continued: "The degree of professionalism he has now is second to none and I think he will be easy to work with, determined to learn and improve himself further when he can.

"He learned a lot of his trade under very good people at Stenhousemuir, I know their former manager Campbell Money well and he has had a big part to play. Now, he is developing even more under Jim and Billy at Hearts. Those two know their club inside out, they know the league inside out and they know what it takes to win football matches.

"They also know that if you have a precocious talent like David Templeton that you have got to do everything in your power to encourage him to use it and to give him the self-belief to go out and perform to the best of his ability and I think they have done that with him.

"A lot of it is obviously down to natural ability, determination and personal confidence - but it also comes from the confidence that you are given by your management team.

"That is what happens when you see match-winners and top performers coming through the ranks and developing.

"Jim and Billy, and Gary Locke, have clearly given that young boy all the confidence in the world to go out there and try things, to express himself on the park

"They had a similar situation during their previous regime at Hearts with Allan Johnston.

"People have been talking about David and comparing him to Neil McCann, but I would honestly have to say that I think he is more in the mould of Allan Johnston."

Since he burst onto the scene at Hearts in the 2008/09 season, making his top team debut in a goalless draw with Aberdeen, much has been made of the 21-year-old's slight frame.

However, performances like Tuesday night's display at Fir Park have gone a long way to proving his doubters wrong.

Many people felt that Templeton would be too lightweight for the rigours of the SPL, but Mackay reckons that the little winger's build can be deceiving: "I watched the Motherwell game on television and before kick-off they had a camera in the Hearts dressing room.

"Before the players went out on the pitch, the only player who didn't have his top on was David Templeton, and the boy has a physique to be proud of.

"He might look smaller than the others but when you have got a frame that can only take a certain amount of muscle on, then you have to maximise that and I think David Templeton has definitely done that.

"Upper body strength is a crucial part of his game and I think it's clear that he has done everything he can to work on that side of things.

"He looks like he has maximised his frame for his growth and it is something that really caught my eye when I saw him last night, simply because it is a thing that people have commented on in the past.

"In the modern game you do need physical strength, no matter how much talent you have. Having physical strength is worthless if you don't have the confidence and ability to go with it and I think this young man has it all in abundance right now."

Tuesday's win over managerless Motherwell saw Hearts close the gap on second-placed Celtic to just three points and Mackay was particularly impressed by the way that the Jambos ground out a result, despite losing two key players at the last minute. Eggert Jonsson and Ian Black both had to watch the game from the stand after succumbing to illness in the hours before kick-off and Mackay believes that the fact Hearts still went on to win simply proves the strength in character and belief that the squad now has running through it.

He stressed: "The win over Motherwell was a big result, it is a big test for any team, going to Fir Park because Motherwell have performed consistently this season and they are very, very difficult to beat on their home ground.

"When you consider that Hearts lost two players to illness before the game - and two very important players at that in Eggert Jonsson and Ian Black - it makes the result look even better.

"Those two bring such a lot to the team and as a whole the game maybe wasn't as free-flowing as we have come to expect from Hearts in recent games.

"But in football you can't just play a fluid passing game all the time and make it nice to watch, sometimes you have to show that you have a bit of grit and that you can grind out a result when you need to and I thought that Hearts did that on Tuesday night.

"That can be an important quality to have in your locker if you're going to achieve something over the course of a season, because every team is going to be affected by illness, injury and suspension at some point. It's how you cope with that and adjust to the situation that's important."