Dumbarton new-boy Calum Gallagher says he won’t hesitate to condemn his old St Mirren teammates to League One should the chance present itself.

The former Rangers youngster joined Stevie Aitken’s outfit last week after failing to force his way into the struggling Saints starting eleven at the foot of the Championship.

Dumbarton currently sit eight points clear of the Buddies in eighth place, and Gallagher is determined to keep them there, even if that is at the expense of his friends in Paisley.

“I’m going to be trying to do my best to make sure that it’s them rather than me at Dumbarton,” Gallagher said.

“Although I’ve got a lot of friends at the club, if scoring a goal meant putting them down then it’s something I wouldn’t think too heavily about before doing it.

“That’s the nature of the beast. It’s obviously been a really strange season for St Mirren, but they have the quality to get themselves out of it and I hope that they do it for the boys’ sake, just not at our expense.

“I’m actually meeting Lewis Morgan and Jack Baird at Silverburn for a bite to eat, so I still get on really well with them. I’m sure there will be a wee back-and-forth across the dinner table.

“It was tough to leave, I was there for a year and a half and made a lot of friends.”

That a player with the talent of Gallagher could be discarded to a direct rival would seem to back up the winger’s theory about the depth of talent at Jack Ross’s disposal.

“I just never felt as if I was given too much of a chance,” he said. “It was probably beneficial to everyone that I got out and looked for more game-time.

“As soon as the opportunity to go to Dumbarton came up I was eager to take it.

“It’s a nice feeling to be wanted, and I felt that from speaking to Stevie. The boys have been really good with me and hopefully I can repay that with some good performances and some goals.”

After becoming accustomed to full-time football since being offered a chance at Rangers as a youngster, Gallagher admits that he must adjust quickly to life as a part-time player.

The fact that he made sure he had some qualifications to fall back on though means that he won't be making any rash decisions about his long-term future.

“It’s a real self-discipline that you need to have to play at this level, keep yourself fit and live the right lifestyle going part-time,” he said.

“It might just be the days off through the week when I’ll be bored out of my brain, but I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do in the next six months in terms of looking for work.

“I’m just going to play the best that I can and hopefully I’ll get an offer at the end of the year that can see me back into full-time football.

“It’s almost a cliché now that there is just not the money in Scottish football, and it is a harsh reality.

“There are so many boys that really could play at a level, but once you hit that age bracket that I’m in just now in your early twenties and you’re trying to build a life for yourself, you do need to make a decision in regards to how far you are willing to go to chase it.

“When I was at Rangers I was offered the chance to go full-time a year earlier than I did, but I stayed on and did my Highers. I’ve got five, so I think I could comfortably go to university if I needed to go down that route.

“It’s a good position to be in, a lot of boys are rushed into full-time football too early and they’ve not got anything behind them where they can go onto other things."