Declan Gallagher hopes he’s about to embark on a journey of CalMac proportions in Dingwall tonight as he targets success for club and country.
The newly-installed Motherwell skipper capped a best-ever season by helping Well to a third place finish and European football on top of his first Scotland caps.
Now with Europa League qualifiers, European Championship play-offs and a host of Nations League matches on the horizon, the Steelmen defender knows he could be in Callum McGregor territory for games played come May.
Celtic midfielder McGregor played more minutes than any other footballer on the planet in season 2018-19 with an astonishing 69 appearances.
And asked if he was prepared to emulate his international team-mate in the new campaign, which starts away to Ross County on Monday night, Gallagher said: “That’s the dream.
“That comes from good performances out there for my club. That was the reason I got the call up before. If I can continue that then hopefully I will keep getting in the Scotland squad.
“A wee run in Europe will maybe cement that place as well.
“Last season was a dream. To play for Scotland – that was massive, the icing on the cake.
“Then finishing third and getting European football wasn’t something I expected so that’s massive too.”
Gallagher has impressed in his two Scotland outings with back-to-back victories against Cyprus and Kazakhstan.
And he reckons that renewing his partnership with summer signing Ricki Lamie in the heart of the Well defence this term could help his ex-Livi mate join him in the national set-up.
He said: “Ricki maybe looked at my career and has seen how it has gone since coming here and thought he wanted a bit of that. He is a top player.”
