But despite his Huddersfield side still propping up the First Division after Gallen's penalty miss in the 1-1 draw against Queens Park Rangers, new manager Macari will not have launched tea cups around the dressing room or kicked the cat when he got home.

Macari has gone beyond that. It was Bill Shankly, one of his predecessors at the Yorkshire club, who famously said: 'Football isn't a matter of life or death, it's far more important than that.'

Macari, more than most of us, knows that to be a cruel lie.

As a teetotal, non-smoking international who tasted great success playing for Celtic and Manchester United and managing Swindon and Stoke, Macari's vice was having a bet long before England card schools caught the nation's attention.

But while he once appeared to have been dealt one of life's better hands, Macari was destined to suffer a family tragedy that has put football - and most other things - into perspective for a man who, understandably, finds it hard 18 months on to talk about the despair of losing his youngest son.

Determined as he is to steer his latest charges out of a trough so deep that Gallen's goal - before his penalty miss on Saturday - was their first for almost 11 hours, there are far more haunting images in Lou Macari's head than the spectre of Second Division football.

He was coaching at Sheffield United the day he was told 19-year-old Jonathan had been found hanged near their Potteries home. Depressed after being released by Nottingham Forest, he had turned to drugs. The coroner recorded an open verdict.

Macari had already been through a trial in which he was acquitted of charges concerning illegal payments at Swindon and a further court case that left him close to bankruptcy after a fruitless compensation claim against Celtic.

The threat of losing one's liberty or home is traumatic. But nothing can prepare a father for the loss of a son and, even now, his eyes reveal an aching sadness as he composes himself for fully 10 seconds before answering a question about the work he has undertaken for a drug-related charity.

Eventually, he said: 'Football management is tougher now than it's ever been. But when you have other things happen to you in life, it does make it that bit easier.

'You go home and you think: 'Well ... I'm disappointed, this is a nightmare'. But there are other things that can happen to you and you realise they are the real nightmares.

'Think of the people who died on that train in that tunnel in Austria, think of the people left behind. Of course, our own family situation - right out of the blue.

'Before, I used to go home at night and if we'd lost I'd go storming into the house and straight up to bed, having no home life. Last Saturday I went home and, yes, I was disappointed, I was upset, but I didn't go straight upstairs.

'As a person, I've experienced - well, like many people do ...

'We sometimes forget that there are other people who go through their lives with bigger problems than winning a football match.

'That doesn't mean I don't want to win matches and get us out of trouble. But I've had other things going on that have taken priority over worrying yourself sick over football, even though there comes a time when you've got to get on with your life.'

Jonathan's death not only devastated his family - Macari and wife Dale have two other sons, Mike, 27, and Paul, 23 - but it made father Lou acutely aware of the dangerous void that opens up for hundreds of vulnerable young men when their dreams of footballing stardom evaporate.

His concern goes beyond Huddersfield's batch of teen hopefuls but he says: 'If you asked me to pick 11 of them who would definitely become professional footballers, I couldn't. Even at 16 or 17 you can't say for sure. The casualty rate is high and, now clubs are taking them at nine or 10 years old, it will get higher.

'Once kids leave school these days it's a bloody tough life. There's a lot of temptations to go with the depression and sense of failure - I'm not just talking football now - and it's a recipe for dis-aster. It's quite frightening for me after what I've experienced.

'It's not right they should get involved at clubs at a young age. I didn't get involved at Celtic until I was 16 and they pushed me for two years before somebody decided to offer me a contract.

'Sure, I'd have been gutted if I hadn't got one but it wouldn't have already become my life.

'It can be difficult to get through to these lads but I'm more aware now about the problems and how they're going to get on with their lives. They need to know that they're not failures, that it's a fact of life and you soldier on.'

Ironically, Macari also fears for the ones who do make it but find themselves living such a comfortable life on football's easy street that they short-change themselves, as well as the managers whose jobs depend on their efforts.

He heard the first alarm bells last May, when Huddersfield needed one win from three matches to make the play-offs. 'I couldn't have reached that point as a player and not made sure, with Wembley and maybe the Premiership within reach.'

Failure then set this season's standards and led to Steve Bruce's departure as manager, with Macari, somewhat reluctantly, stepping up from coach.

Macari once motivated his Swindon players by telling reporters he would pick the team only after smelling their breath - they won Division Four with a record 102 points that season - but believes the fairy tale days enjoyed by the likes of Wimbledon and Swindon can never be repeated.

At 51, he admits to facing his hardest job, never having gone six matches without a win, never mind a goal. Saturday's match with third-from-bottom QPR, in which Karl Connolly ' s 30th-minute effort cancelled out Gallen's eighth-minute opener, had the air of a battle against relegation for both clubs, even in November.

He said: 'There's so much money around but the gulf is so wide that even such as Derby have no hope of competing with Manchester United. I love United after 11 years there but I don't like to see them getting ever wealthier and racing clear.

'Maybe the TV money should have been shared differently, with the little clubs getting most. These days a player can retire on his Premiership wages after two years and even in the First Division they earn plenty.