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First posted on Facebook, August 16th, 2016

Happy Birthday to ‘Galls’ who turned 37 today. I’m sure Paul is fondly remembered by fans of Dundee United, Dunfermline, St. Mirren and Partick Thistle but perhaps not so much down at Carrow Road way, Norwich. Paul was capped 8 times for Scotland all coming in the Berti Vogts era of from 2002 to 2004, whilst he was a Dundee United player.
Paul was given his chance with Scotland in May 2002, a few months into Berti’s reign as Scotland faced the might of the Hong Kong League XI. Ok, ‘might’ is probably too strong a word perhaps the duff Hong Kong League XI would be more accurate. However, let the record show that Berti did indeed record a victory in a game for the first time in Hong Kong as Scotland ran out 4-0 winners. As for Gallacher he was given 14 minutes at the end of the game replacing Celtic’s Rab Douglas. Surely one of Gallacher’s claims to fame must be that he played in the same National side
as Scotland and Chelsea legend Warren Cummings.
Paul’s next game would come in October as he became the regular second choice to Douglas. Paul played in Scotland’s 3-1 win over Canada at Easter Road with two goals from Dunfermline’s Stevie Crawford and one from United team mate Steven Thompson.
He was then given the second half of a friendly against the Republic of Ireland that saw Neill Sullivan gain his last cap for Scotland and be replaced by Gallacher for the second half at Hampden. Scotland were to lose 2-0 with both goals coming in the first half; so technically a clean sheet for Galls.
Gallacher would only ever play in one competitive match for Scotland, which was in April 2003 in a Euro Qualifier in Kaunas, Lithuania. Scotland lost one nil to a 73rd minute penalty; this was only a few days after the Lithuanians had gained a draw in Nuremberg with Germany 1-1.
Gallacher would then feature in three friendly losses; two at home to Austria and then Romania before a third loss away to Denmark (Berti loved to play friendlies; he just couldn’t win them – P19 W4 D3 L12 F17 A34).
He would see victory in his final game as Scotland beat Estonia in May 2004 due to a solitary goal by James McFadden.
George Burley would recall Gallacher back into the Scotland set up for a friendly against Wales during his days with St. Mirren but sadly that was it for Paul.
So Happy Birthday to the Paul and all the best.