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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Paul Thomson

Airdrie star Calum Gallagher thanks Bryan Prunty for helping him smash his Diamonds scoring record

Airdrie striker Calum Gallagher broke Bryan Prunty's scoring record at the club - then thanked him for helping eclipse it.

The 28-year-old fired in his 44th goal in the Diamond when a fine volley in Saturday's 3-3 draw with Queen of the South and that knocked Prunty off his perch as the club's top goalscorer in the post-2002 era, when Airdrie was reformed.

However, Prunty has been part of the coaching staff at New Broomfield for the past four years and Gallagher says he has played a pivotal role in helping him break his tally.

Gallagher, who rushed to the dugout to celebrate his goal with the ex-striker, said: "It's a great achievement. I've probably taken a few more games than Prunts - he was a lot more clinical than me - but I'm delighted.

"We've joked about it in training for the last six months or so because it was on the horizon.

"It was nice to score and my first thought when I did was to go and get a cuddle off Prunts.

"It was a thank you to him because he is full of wisdom and knowledge.

"More importantly, he's a bit of a therapist in here.

"He looks after the boys and it can be a difficult game at times, especially as a striker if you are not scoring goals or out of the team - as I have been the last wee while.

"We've got a great relationship and it was nice to share that moment with him.

"I'm sure there will be a part of him that wishes he could get his boots back on. But the celebration was to say thank you to him."

Prunty presented Gallagher with a bottle of prosecco post-match to mark the occasion and said: "I'd like to congratulate Calum. These are the things that make football, especially strikers because we are known as greedy so and sos.

"Within me I knew it was going to get taken over at some point, but there is nobody better to do it so I'm full of praise for him.

"Hopefully, there are more goals to come from him."

Calum Galagher was on target for Airdrie (John Steven)

Gallagher admits he is now turning his attention to half a century of goals after netting six times in 14 games so far this season over limited minutes.

He added: "Fifty has got to be the next target now and then getting as many as I can.

"I've actually got off to quite a good start this season in terms of minutes played and goals scored, so it is clicking for me inf ront of goal.

"I'm getting chances and I've been fortunate that they have hit the net.

"It's just trying to break the 10 - which is a sticky number early in the season. I think once you break that in a season, the sky's the limit in terms of confidence and what you can finish on."

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