Town manager Roy Keane says loan striker Rory Fallon’s performances against his teams for Plymouth were what persuaded him to bring the New Zealand international to Portman Road. Fallon, who is reportedly interesting another unnamed club, impressed the Blues boss with his displays against both Town and his Sunderland side.
Keane said: "Rory’s a good lad, a good player and a good pro. He’s doing a job for us. A bit like when we brought Stern John in, people raised their eyebrows but Stern brought something to the team that we didn’t have and Rory does that in terms of a physical presence, an aerial threat. As much as Connor will give us that, he’s still learning the game.
"Every time I’ve come up against Rory he’s been a handful against us, whether that’s here or at Sunderland. He gives us something a bit different.
"I think over the last year or two we’ve had some good, nice, tidy players but that does not get you out of the Championship. We still lack a physical presence.”
Fallon's spell at Portman Road runs until January 22nd and with Plymouth in financial strife is likely to be available for a bargain fee, which is already understood to have been agreed if he impresses during his loan. However, according to reports in the South-West, another unnamed club has also made an offer for the former Swansea, Barnsley and Swindon man, who has so far made two starts and two sub appearances for the Blues without scoring.
Keane feels that having a fellow All White at the club has benefited the 28-year-old: "I think it helped that he knew Tommy Smith, Tommy’s looked after him.
"He seems a decent enough kid, he’s here on loan, he wants to do well. He would probably like to move here, although I don’t know because we’ve not had that conversation yet because he’s not our player and we have to be respectful of him and Plymouth.
"The boy’s done well but he’d probably like to hit the back of the net himself and hopefully he’ll do that soon.”
While Keane believes that Jason Scotland will double his goals tally by the end of the season, he says more of his players need to be finding the net regularly: "Even if Jason gets us 15 goals this season we can’t be dependent on one striker. We need more goals from Priskin, Rory, Connor.
"Chuck’s got six, I think Carlos can contribute more, Shane O’Connor’s got a goal in him, I think Grant’s got a goal in him, although he’s scored one or two from penalties. From set pieces I think we miss Gareth, he looked as if he could score before he got injured, Tommy’s got one or two.”
The Blues manager, who has already confirmed that he'll be targeting frontmen in January, says it's the lack of goals which has been his side’s biggest problem: "We need more goals, it’s the goals which have been holding us back ever since I’ve walked into the club.
"You can talk about the bad goals we’ve conceded but you watch the Championship every week, teams are conceding goals that leave you scratching your head that you wouldn’t see on a Sunday morning. But then they’re capable of going up the other end and lashing one in. We’ve not done that.
"Goals will change the course of our season. If we don’t score goals we’ll continue battling down there with lots of other good teams and good clubs all fighting for their lives.”
Elsewhere, one of Town’s legendary strikers, Paul Mariner, has been linked with the vacant head coach's job at MLS side Toronto FC. Mariner has previously worked extensively in North America and was assistant coach at the New England Revolution before joining his former club Plymouth last year.
After a spell as manager at Home Park last season, the former England frontman is now Argyle’s head coach working under Peter Reid.