Gallagher targets return to Scotland set-up at St Mirren
Fresh start in Paisley has defender eyeing more caps
DECLAN GALLAGHER’s international career may have been placed on hold but he hasn’t given up hope of one day resurrecting it. The defender won his ninth – and so far final – Scotland cap against Luxembourg in June 2021, right before the start of the European Championships. A move to Aberdeen for the following season was also pending. Things were looking good.
It was at that point, however, that it started to turn sour. Gallagher didn’t make the match-day squad for Scotland’s first two games and didn’t get on when he was named as a substitute for the final game against Croatia. For someone who had marked Aleksandar Mitrovic to great success in the crucial play-off win over Serbia just seven months earlier, it was a colossal disappointment.
It didn’t work out at Pittodrie, either. Signed by Stephen Glass as “one of the country’s top centre-backs”, it proved to be a difficult season at a struggling club. Scotland boss Steve Clarke took his share of the blame, fearing that not playing Gallagher at the Euros had dented his confidence.
The 31 year-old doesn’t blame Clarke at all for what transpired that summer but admitted that events over the subsequent 12 months took him to a dark place.
“The full season from start to finish was a low point,” he said. “I got myself back into the team then pulled my hamstring. I came back when Covid hit again so it was totally stop start.
“I was never fully fit but I can give it all the excuses I want – if you’re not doing it on the park the fans have every right to give you the abuse I got last season. It just didn’t work out for both parties.
“It felt like a knock-on effect. At one point, I said to my missus: ‘I don’t know how I’m going to get out of this’. I was in a wee state of depression. I couldn’t see an end point.
“I couldn’t see when we’d win another game or keep a clean sheet. We went for so long without a clean sheet, it was unbelievable. We actually didn’t play too badly. Sometimes we’d have 14 shots, the other team would have two but we’d lose the game 1-0.
“That’s just a confidence thing and you feel it on your shoulders at a big club like Aberdeen.”
His Scotland prospects were naturally tied to his club performances and he fell out of the international picture.
“I made a couple of squads when I was at Aberdeen and then I wasn’t playing,” he added. “The manager phoned me up to talk about it. He actually took a bit of blame that he didn’t have to do.
“He said that he took me to the Euros, I was left out for two squads, made the bench for one and never played any games. He felt that had maybe dented my confidence and he didn’t have to say that. He had choices to make himself. So, we had a really good chat.
“I’ve got the utmost respect for him for what he’s done. Last season wasn’t my greatest of seasons so it was justified me coming out of the squad.”
Gallagher is now at St Mirren and playing regularly in a defence that kept three clean sheets in succession before a recent loss at St Johnstone. And he believes a return to the Scotland set-up isn’t beyond him.
“One of the things he [Clarke] said to me in the chat was for me to get back playing and back playing well again,” the former Motherwell player revealed. “I did well under him getting nine caps and I was eight unbeaten at one stage. He knows what I can do and knows I can do it at that stage.
“I’ve always said I’d like to get my tenth cap, hit double figures, but it all comes down to me playing well here. It’s not an impossible task to get back into the Scotland squad coming to a place like St Mirren, playing every week and doing well. We’ve kept a few clean sheets over the last few weeks so it’s about trying to force my way back in there and catching the eye.”
In Stephen Robinson, Gallagher feels he has a manager who gets him. “He has belief in me,” he confirms.
“No disrespect to other managers at Aberdeen but the gaffer here has always believed in my ability. I’m not a person who needs an arm round my shoulder – but he does it anyway. And it does make you feel good. Players will say they don’t need it but psychologically, it helps you. He did that the minute I came in. He’s always praising me and he’ll text me privately too.
“Sometimes if I need a kick up the bum or told I’ve been brilliant, he’ll do it. He’s always there when I need him. We have a good relationship on and off the park.”
I said to my missus: ‘I don’t know how I’m going to get out of this’