Elgin City midfielder Mark Gallagher learned off current Bologna Serie A star at Aberdeen and wants to knock his old Pittodrie club out of the Scottish Cup at Borough Briggs
Elgin City midfielder Mark Gallagher plans to put some of the skills he learned at Pittodrie on show against the Dons this weekend.
It will be the biggest game of the 23-year-old’s career so far when City take on Aberdeen at Borough Briggs in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup on Saturday.
Gallagher signed for the Pittodrie club from Ross County as a teenager, worked under present Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes and trained alongside the likes of current Bologna star Lewis Ferguson.
Now at Elgin via spells in Irish football and at Cove Rangers, he is keen to play his part in a Black and Whites’ quest to make history.
“I live in Aberdeen now so a lot of my friends are also Aberdeen fans. It's a big game for me personally,” he said.
“Obviously I used to play for the club as well, so I'm looking forward to testing myself against top quality players.”
Gallagher didn’t make a first team appearance for the Donsd but said the club played a huge part in his football development.
“I was there for two and a half years. I signed just before Covid hit, so obviously there was a long break after I signed and I think it was end of summer when we ended up coming back.
“I had loan spells and a few injuries, then I was released. But my time there was really good.
“I learned a lot about myself and obviously improved as a player just through training with the first team and working with different managers, so I'd say it was definitely beneficial for my career.
“Derek McInnes signed me, so I worked with him maybe for a year. He brought me in, gave me the experience of training with the first team. I was in a few squads as well, a few matchday squads, so even just being around his sessions helped me improve as a player, I'd say.”
Gallagher recalls training with the likes of internationals like Jonny Hayes, Niall McGinn and Ryan Hedges, but it was Scotland midfielder Ferguson who impressed him most.
“You could tell just by training sessions that he was going to do well in his career. I think he's one of the guys that you can look at as a young player and take things from his game and try to put them into your game, because obviously he's a top quality player.
“You always try to look at players that play in your position and try to watch what they do, and he was certainly one that I would look at. The goals that he would score for midfield is something that I want to do as well, definitely.”
Gallagher has netted three times from the middle of the park for City this season, and would dearly love to add to his tally in a massive match this weekend.
“I would have to say it’s the biggest game in my career so far,” he said. “My debut for Ross County against Greenock Morton was right up there, but I only got about ten minutes in that one.
“This is going to be a great occasion. It's a sell-out crowd as well, so I'm really looking forward to it.
“There will be a big Aberdeen support and I think when you're a supporter of a big team, you always like going to smaller grounds, just a different atmosphere, a different type of game than you would get in the Premiership. And there's loads of Aberdeen fans, probably in Elgin.”
Much has been said about Aberdeen’s bad form just now - they have failed to win in their last 11 league outings.
Gallagher believes the Dons will see Saturday’s cup clash as a release from their sticky Premiership run, but he doesn’t think a shock result is beyond Elgin.
“Obviously our aim is to win the game and cause an upset. With Aberdeen obviously going a poor run of form, I think that kind of goes out the window when you come to a cup game.
“We can't really read too much into that because we still know how good a team they are.
It's the same players that went so many games unbeaten at the start of the season. So we know what they're going to be like.
“We know they're going to have most of the ball, but we just need to show our own game and hopefully show our own quality and try to cause an upset.”