Thursday 1st November 2018
CALUM GALLAGHER is only 24 – but he’s old enough to know football shows no mercy.
As one of the longer-serving members of the Dumbarton squad – no, seriously, he is – recent times have been the end of an era for him as much as anybody.
He’s had to get used to calling somebody else his boss, that somebody of course being Jim Duffy.
And it only took six minutes for Calum to get a huge lift out of the new regime with Sons.
That’s how long it took for him to open the scoring against East Fife in Saturday’s 4-0 victory. It made him top scorer on his own in all competitions for 39 minutes before Bobby Barr also matched his tally of four.
Dumbarton now head to Montrose this Saturday with every intention of building on that result.
Speaking to www.dumbartonfootballclub.com, Calum said: “It’s always a tough transition. We were very close to Stevie Aitken, with him having been here for years, and Ian Durrant as well.
“As a group of boys, we can’t speak highly enough of them as managers or people.
“But it’s nice to have the new gaffer in. It’s given us all a lift.
“Football has a lot to do with mentality and it’s a real shame it didn’t work for the previous management, but if that’s our response it’s certainly something we can take advantage of.
“Montrose beat us in the Irn Bru Cup, so we know they are a capable side. We need to prepare as best we can and we will be looking to push on from Saturday.
“We need to keep the goals coming and keep the place energetic, because we have something to build on.”
Stuart Carswell and Dom Thomas added the other goals in Dumbarton’s biggest victory for 20 months.
It could be a one-off, it could be the start of something exciting. Only time will tell. But Calum knows which of those he wants.
He added: “For somebody who considers themselves a forward-thinking player, it’s always my goal to hit a tally that reflects that.
“We won as a team and I want to contribute as much as I can. I really enjoyed that against East Fife as I don’t score that sort of goal very often.
“Saturday couldn’t have gone much better for us. The boys were brilliant. We looked organised and dangerous.
“We’ve had a two or three month spell where nothing seemed to break for us. Getting the early goal gave us a real lift and so did the new gaffer.
“We just need to take things one game at a time and we can only play what’s in front of us. Hopefully two or three months down the line we’ll look at Saturday’s game as the real launch pad for a successful season.
“But we must keep ourselves in the here and now for the time being.”
Andy Galloway