PAUL Gallagher will be offered a Blackburn Rovers lifeline this summer as Sam Allardyce challenges the striker to ‘show me what you have got’.

Rovers’ home-grown forward has looked destined for an Ewood Park exit, having spent the past two seasons on loan in the Championship, but boss Allardyce will give him the chance to revive his career in East Lancashire.

Several Championship clubs have been circling the Scot, after an impressive campaign with Plymouth last time out, but Gallagher could yet provide Rovers with an answer to their firepower shortage.

The 24-year-old made just one appearance for Rovers last season, a 20-minute substitute’s cameo in the Carling Cup win over Grimsby, before spending the rest of the campaign with the Pilgrims.

He spent the previous season on loan at Preston and then Stoke and has not made a Premier League appearance for Rovers since May 2007, his last goal coming at Everton in January 2007.

Gallagher has been at Ewood since 2002, scoring six senior goals in total, but will get a final chance to stake his claim for a more regular role this pre-season.

With Roque Santa Cruz and Matt Derbyshire heading out of Ewood this summer, Allardyce will be desperate to land a senior striker but Gallagher will feature this pre-season and will bid to show he can be part of the solution.

Rovers though also remain keen on Chelsea’s Argentinean youngster Franco Di Santo and a loan move for him could spell the end for Gallagher.

Any deal for Di Santo is unlikely to go through before the start of pre-season though leaving Gallagher the opportunity to show Allardyce he does provide him with another option.

Preston, Plymouth and Ipswich are all believed to be interested in Gallagher but the striker, who was brought up in Blackburn, would love to remain at Rovers if he had the chance of being involved.