ON the face of it, Roy Keane has taken a gamble in the capture of both Rory Fallon and Gianni Zuiverloon on loan deals yesterday.

ON the face of it, Roy Keane has taken a gamble in the capture of both Rory Fallon and Gianni Zuiverloon on loan deals yesterday.

With his team short of goals, Keane has recruited an experienced striker in Fallon who has mustered just one goal all season. He has been secured with a view to a permanent move in January.

And in his quest to find a settled right-back, the Town boss has turned to a defender in Zuiverloon who has not played a league game all campaign.

So neither player hardly comes with a glowing report, but often a change of scenery, and the promise of a new challenge, can work wonders. It can prompt a flow of goals, or a return to form.

Keane, and Town supporters in general, will be hoping that this is the case. Otherwise, Town’s problems will only get more serious.

Fallon netted his only goal of the current season, in Plymouth’s 2-1 home defeat to Brentford last Saturday.

However, in his defence, the New Zealand international missed several games through a groin injury earlier in the season, while the out-of-form Pilgrims have struggled to create chances in League One.

Town fans have a right to question whether new recruit Fallon is any better than the strikers Keane released last summer, and in the first couple of weeks of the season. Namely, Jon Stead, Pablo Counago and Kevin Lisbie.

With regards Counago and Lisbie, loaned out to Crystal Palace and Millwall respectively, Fallon would appear a suitable replacement and a handy striker to have in your squad.

But Stead, who is currently amongst the goals for his new club Bristol City, with five goals in his last 10 appearances, has a better pedigree.

Unfortunately for Keane, who didn’t really want Stead to leave, the Yorkshireman needed to move on to help finance the arrival of Jason Scotland from Wigan.

The need for a specialist right-back has been even more pressing, ever since the departures of David Wright (to Crystal Palace) and loanee Liam Rosenior (back to parent club Reading and on to Hull) over the summer.

The versatile Jaime Peters and Carlos Edwards have filled in at right-back, as have youngsters Jack Ainsley, Troy Brown and Tom Eastman.

But no one has staked a claim to be a permament fixture in that position.

Eastman, a natural centre-half rather than right-back, has acquitted himself well over the last six games. But the teenager has limitations going forward, and he was carrying a groin problem at the end of last weekend’s 1-0 defeat at Hull.

Wright was popular amongst the Portman Road faithful, for his solid if unspectacular performances at full-back, either on the right or the left.

But Zuiverloon should be viewed as an exciting signing - West Brom splashed out �3.2m to sign the former Holland Under-21 international in 2008.

Although he has been restricted to just three first team outings this term, all in the Carling Cup, he has proved in the past that he can be effective in the Championship (30 games last season), and the Premier League (33 appearances the previous year).