Gall Still Poised For Loan ALLY McCOIST maintains he still feels it’s best for Scott Gallacher to go out on loan this season despite being impressed by the goalkeeper in the last few weeks. The 24-year-old made his competitive debut for Rangers in yesterday’s 4-0 win over Albion Rovers at Livingston’s Energy Assets Arena. Although he didn’t have much to do in a routine victory, Gallacher did well whenever he was called into action. Gallacher featured in the pre-season games against Brora, Elgin and Sheffield Wednesday and has made a positive impact. But McCoist feels it is in his interests to go to a club where he’ll be guaranteed to play games every week for the sake of aiding his development. As such, he is considering a number of more experienced options to possibly compete with Cammy Bell for the number one shirt. Steve Simonsen was recently confirmed as one of those, while Northern Ireland cap Lee Camp is another McCoist has given thought to. He said: “These are boys who have been put to us and myself, big Jim (Stewart), Kenny (McDowall) and Ian (Durrant) are discussing them. “We’ve got a little bit of a dilemma there because Gall has come in and done exceptionally well while Cammy is there and ready to play as well. “I’m still of the opinion – even though I’m very confident and more confident than I’ve ever been that Scott will do well – it’s probably in his best interests to go out on loan for a season. “That’s in the club’s best interests too. Gall has to go out and play games and we need to see what happens there. “We’ll either put him out on loan or we’ll keep him here and make sure he gets games every week or so. “It’s a wee problem we’ve got and over the next couple of weeks we’ll be able to finalise what we are doing there. “I can totally understand why people think Scott should be allowed to challenge for the number one shirt but you tend to forget he hasn’t played a lot of matches. “Being such a specialised position, you have to get it right with goalkeepers. I’ve no doubt Scott’s ready to challenge but it might be better that he plays somewhere else first. “There are different ways to look at it and it could well be that he takes the number one jersey next year. I’m full of confidence in him otherwise he wouldn’t be playing at the moment. “I feel he has to play on a regular basis though and I’m still edging towards the opinion it would be better for him to go out and play somewhere else for now.” One other keeper rousing interest from Rangers fans is Craig Gordon, who has been seen at Murray Park several times over the last few months. He has mainly been there to work on his coaching badges with goalkeeping coach Jim Stewart but has also been training individually after a long spell out injured. McCoist would love to take a look at the Scotland international with a view to perhaps coming to an agreement further down the line. But he insists all parties are still some way from that at present and maintains the arrangement is purely casual for now. McCoist added: “Craig has been doing some coaching stuff with Jim and also making use of our facilities. “He hasn’t been doing goalkeeping coaching though and it has just been general stuff to keep himself in shape. “Craig has been going through a course of injections for his long-term injury and he had the last of his jags in Barcelona last week. “I have spoken to him and he’s now looking to kick on again. That would be fantastic and I’d love to see him here doing that so that we can have a look at him. “That’s where we are at the moment. He’s thankful for the training facilities and we’re delighted to give him them. There’s no pressure on him. “Craig is more than welcome to train with Jim and our goalkeepers. He’ll have a better idea of where he is once he’s done that because it has been a long injury for him.”
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 13:35:53 +0000