Friday 4th August 2017
THE best way to make Grant Gallagher laugh?
Tell him he’s Dumbarton’s longest-serving current outfield player.
And that’s not even a joke.
The coming season will only be the midfielder’s third at the club, but other than goalkeeper Jamie Ewings, no current player has been part of Sons’ first team squad longer.
With Garry Fleming being released and subsequently joining Alloa, the baton is now passed to the 26-year-old.
After a nightmare with an ankle injury which ruled him out of three quarters of last season, he suffered another setback with a knee injury in the pre-season win over Partick Thistle last month.
It was a blow to him, having been out of action since September.
He told www.dumbartonfootballclub.com: “It’s a shock for me that I’m the longest-serving outfield player – I didn’t even know that!
“But it’s good to hear. You pride yourself on these kind of things and I suppose it’ll be up to me to get the guys up to speed and give them the history!
“With the way things went for me last year, it was frustrating, but I was still happy to see the team stay up.
“This time, hopefully we can get off to a good start when things get underway.”
As manager Stevie Aitken’s first new signing when he arrived in May 2015, Grant has already seen Sons defy the odds and stay up twice.
And he’s confident that they can do so again – although he sees no reason not to set the bar higher this time around.
He added: “Why not?
“When you start the season, you don’t like to start it with the goal of staying up. You want to be pushing for something.
“Everybody starts with zero points, so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t aim high.
“It would be good to get a decent cup run this season as well, as it’s been a while since we’ve had one of those.
“We’re all looking forward to the games to come.”
Please note that this interview took place before Grant was ruled out for much of the season with a ruptured cruciate ligament – see HERE for more.
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Andy Galloway