Tuesday 17th July 2018
HE’S just emerged from scoring Dumbarton’s first competitive goal of this season.
But Calum Gallagher still has the previous campaign in the back of his mind.
Sons’ 1-0 win over Queen’s Park, courtesy of his 33rd minute goal, means that they are well positioned in the Betfred Cup section, halfway through their fixtures.
There is, though, still a long way to go before the wounds of just over two months ago are fully healed.
The League One kick-off is still two weeks away and Calum feels that he, and the other players who were with the club last season, have some making up to do.
For another fortnight, all they can do is talk – but he hopes that come Saturday, August 4 at Methil, they won’t just be ready to walk, but run.
Speaking to www.dumbartonfootballclub.com, Calum said: “I’m definitely happy with that. On a personal level, my target is to grab more goals and I’m off to a good start. Hopefully it continues and I can take it into the new league season.
“It’s a testament to the manager, to Ian Durrant and to the club, that we’ve managed to attract the players we have.
“Most of the boys have a lot of experience at Premiership or Championship level and I think most teams in League One would see us as a threat this season.
“But at the same time, we need to take it one game at a time. It’s important just to play our own game.
“We’ve all got a point to prove this season for the fans. The gaffer has seen enough of us to offer us a deal and keep us on, but it’s not only him we have to make it up to.
“We owe it to the fans to do ourselves justice. We are off to a good start in the pre-season and have played pretty well so far. Hopefully that continues and the gaffer is happy in the long term.”
By virtue of the Queen’s Park victory, and Saturday’s penalty shoot-out success against Spartans, Sons top Group H of the Betfred Cup.
But the bar is now about to be raised, with Kilmarnock and St Mirren waiting, starting on Saturday when Killie visit the C&G Systems Stadium.
Calum missed the friendly with Hearts recently due to attending a wedding, so this will be his first clash with Premiership opposition, and it is a challenge he is confident Dumbarton can meet.
He added: “Tonight we’ve maybe done ourselves the justice we didn’t do in the second half on Saturday. In the second half against Spartans we deserved a goal for the way we played in the last half hour or so.
“We just couldn’t get it on target, so it’s nice to get the first win under our belts tonight.
“We’re now right up there in the group table and in the last two games, anything can happen, so we will just go into it with a positive outlook.
“The other boys will take things from the Hearts game into these two fixtures; unfortunately I wasn’t there that day!
“It certainly helps that we’ve played against that sort of quality already, but you could also see how well we played in other games. Cumbernauld Colts made it very difficult for us, and the same for East Kilbride.
“There are two sides to a game; when you have the ball and when you don’t have the ball. We will adopt the positive aspects of our game and move forward.”
Calum nets Sons first competitive goal against Queen’s Park.
© Fullarton Photos 2018
Andy Galloway