YOUNG striker Paul Gallagher could have played his way into Graeme Souness's first team plans following his late cameo against Charlton on Monday night.

Gallagher came off the bench against the Addicks to provide some much needed spark in the final third as Rovers attempted to snatch a late point from the fire.

And the young Scot made such an impact that Souness is now toying with giving him a bigger taste of the action in the coming weeks as he looks to get Rovers' season back on track.

Gallagher is normally a striker by trade and he has already been banging the goals in for the reserves on a rergular basis this season, but Souness was impressed with his work out wide on Monday and the Scotland Under 21 international may now get the chance to replace David Thompson when the midfielder serves a one-match ban -- accrued for five bookings -- later this month.

"I thought Gally gave us a real lift when he came on on Monday," said Souness.

"He got the nod on the bench because he can play in a couple of positions -- either through the middle or out wide.

"With David Thompson facing a suspension soon, he could get his chance on the right hand side of midfield, which isn't his natural position, but he has shown he could do a job there."

Gallagher's rise in status could spell trouble for the likes of Dwight Yorke and Ciccio Grabbi, however.

Both of those players failed to make the 16 altogether as they were overlooked in favour of the teenager on Monday night and Souness has warned that reputation alone is not enough to guarantee anyone a place in his squad at the moment.

"We have a squad of players and I'll be picking the team that I feel is best suited to getting us out of our present situation," said Souness.

"I pick the team on what I see in training and what I see in games.

"That's a philosophy I've always worked on."

Souness also explained his reasons for starting with a 4-5-1 formation against the Addicks, which some fans interpreted as a negative step.

"I changed the system because we've been leaking goals so the aim was try to be more solid in midfield and, on the whole, I thought we were," said Souness.

"They had one shot on goal in the whole of the first half and that was the one they scored off.

"But, by and large, I thought it worked.

"Once we went one down, I sacrificed Garry Flitcroft which was unfair on him but we needed a goal so I took off our most defensive midfielder.

"I just thought Barry Ferguson scored 18 for Rangers last season, Thommo's always got a goal in him, and Brett Emerton is capable of chipping in with one, too."

Meanwhile, Lorenzo Amoruso is facing three months on the sidelines, as we revealed in our later editions last night.

An exploratory operation revealed that Amoruso's knee injury was worse than first feared and it could be the New Year before he plays again.