Boss Roy Keane says new loan signing Stern John can score the goals to turn Town’s many draws into wins. The Town manager was hugely impressed with the 33-year-old Trinidadian during his eight months playing under him at Sunderland and yesterday brought him in on a month's loan from Crystal Palace.
Keane said: "I know Stern well, he’s a good experienced striker, not a youngster but he’ll give us something different. He’s a good character and he’s a good man. I’m glad to get him.
"He was probably one of my best signings at Sunderland in terms of what he brought to the club, he just got on with the job and he’s a big, strong man.
"Even when I let him go to Southampton when I got Kenwyne Jones, he took it really well and I remember thinking ‘he’s a good man’, and I’m looking forward to working with him again.”
The Blues boss says his side have been creating chances and that John is the man to convert them: "He’s not the type of striker who’ll get behind teams, but he’ll certainly hold it up. Basically, I believe he’ll get goals for us.
"I think we get some good balls in the box and sometimes we’ve not had that person attacking it and I think Stern will do that. As much as we’ve praised the players, particularly the strikers, for their workrate and so on, we need someone who can put the ball in the back of the net, as that’s what’s been costing us.”
Asked if the move could be extended beyond the current month, Keane says that goals will be the key: "If he scores 10 goals in the next few games he’ll have a hell of a chance!
"If Stern scores goals it benefits everyone. It’ll benefit Ipswich, it’ll benefit Stern, he might go back to Palace, or if not it might get a fee for Palace.”
Keane says the Eagles might not have been willing to allow the much-travelled frontman to join Town but for the Blues' current position: "I don’t think Palace would have loaned him if we were top of the table or in the play-offs, in competition with them, but they might look at us at the moment and let Stern come and score some goals for us as we’re not a threat to them. Hopefully we will be in a few months.”
Loan players aren’t required to pass medicals and the Irishman says John, like other players in their thirties, has an injury history, although that doesn’t mean he’s constantly sidelined: "Stern would probably never pass a medical in his life because of his body and his knees, but he doesn’t miss many games and I don’t think he missed a training session when he was at Sunderland.”
Keane considered bringing in a loan keeper after Asmir Begovic's return to Portsmouth and says he made a number of enquiries about further loans before yesterday’s deadline: "We looked at a few different players, a few options and made plenty of phonecalls yesterday, but we couldn’t get there for one reason or another, be it the finances or the player.”
Carlisle left-back Ian Harte was reported to be a target, but his former Republic of Ireland team-mate refused to confirm moving for him: "Ian’s been linked, along with how many other players? We’ve been linked with lots of players and I think it’s unfair of me to comment on that.
"We had a number of targets, we’ve got Stern and I think we’ve got 21 players training today, so I’m OK for numbers, let me tell you.”
John will go straight into the squad for Sunday's game at Cardiff, although Keane is yet to decide whether he will start.
Central defender Alex Bruce is out for two or three weeks with a recurrence of the groin injury which sidelined him earlier in the season.