Partick’s Gallacher swaps coaching for keeper’s gloves

Paul Gallacher: Had accepted that his playing career was over. Picture: SNS

Gallacher made 39 appearances over the previous two seasons as he combined his role as goalkeeping coach with that of providing cover and competition for Scott Fox, who left for Ross County in the summer.

Partick manager Alan Archibald brought in Tomas Cerny as a replacement and made Ryan Scully second-choice keeper, leaving Gallacher to focus on coaching.

However, Scully was sent off in the 4-0 defeat to Hearts last weekend after an ankle injury ruled Cerny out for six weeks, and it means Gallacher is set to make his first appearance of the campaign at Dens Park.

“It’s a big game for the club and myself and I’m looking forward to it,” the 36-year-old said.

“It’s obviously come at a cost with the injury to Tomas and Ryan’s suspension but it’s a chance for me to go and play.

“I train with the guys every day and I’m working hard so I’m not getting chucked into the deep end.”

The former Scotland goalkeeper had come to terms with the end of his playing career and views the Dundee clash as a bonus. “The gaffer made it clear that he sees me more as a goalkeeping coach and maybe backing up as third-choice goalkeeper,” Gallacher said. “It was up to me just to get that in my mindset and just deal with it and we have done that, we have moved on.”

Dundee manager Paul Hartley has warned his players not to be fooled by Partick’s 4-0 defeat by Hearts.

Hartley, whose side have taken two points from three games despite twice being ahead against ten men, said: “We will have to be 100 per cent at it. Watching their Hearts game last week, they played well in the first half. They’ve shown a good improvement since the last time we played them.

“They’ve had some decent results recently apart from last Saturday but they were right in the game until half-time. So we expect a tough game.”