Super Sam thrilled to find that scoring feeling again

SAM

- Peter Smith

Gallagher feels like he's getting his legs back - and that he's repaid a debt as he scored his first Stoke City goal for 10 months.The 30-year-old forward has been through the mill since joining Stoke in the summer of 2024 and a stop-start first season has followed by being stuck in the treatment room for most of the first four months of his second.

He has been eased back into the thick of things by Mark Robins since late November but he was kicking himself twice away at Watford and he was relieved as much as pleased to get back on the scoresheet with a pivotal performance at Norwich.

Sorba Thomas set him up to score the opening goal and then he played a part in the second goal to clinch it, scored by Thomas.

Gallagher said: "I've been getting my fitness back steadily but it came at a tough time when the games are so congested that if I've come on at halftime maybe I've been a bit hesitant to start the next one. I have been managed through this tight period.

"But I feel like I'm getting my legs back. My start the other day was the first one since the start of May last year.