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Rory Fallon

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Rory Fallon
Fallon playing for Plymouth Argyle in 2009
Personal information
Full name Rory Michael Fallon[1]
Date of birth (1982-03-20) 20 March 1982 (age 42)
Place of birth Gisborne, New Zealand
Height 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Position(s) Forward
Youth career
Mount Albert Grammar
Barnsley
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1999–2003 Barnsley 52 (11)
2001–2002 → Shrewsbury Town (loan) 11 (0)
2003–2006 Swindon Town 77 (22)
2005 → Yeovil Town (loan) 6 (1)
2006–2007 Swansea City 44 (13)
2007–2011 Plymouth Argyle 149 (22)
2010–2011 → Ipswich Town (loan) 6 (1)
2011 Yeovil Town 5 (0)
2011–2013 Aberdeen 37 (3)
2013–2014 St. Johnstone 8 (1)
2014 Crawley Town 8 (0)
2014–2015 Scunthorpe United 4 (3)
International career‡
2009– New Zealand 18 (4)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 16:21, 5 January 2015 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 16:21, 5 January 2015 (UTC)

Rory Michael Fallon (born 20 March 1982) is an English-New Zealand footballer who is unattached. He has previously played for Barnsley, Shrewsbury Town, Swindon Town, Yeovil Town, Swansea City, Plymouth Argyle, Ipswich Town, Yeovil Town, Aberdeen, St. Johnstone and Scunthorpe United. After originally representing England at youth level, he has been capped by New Zealand at international level and scored the goal that took them to the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He was born and raised in Gisborne. His father Kevin managed New Zealand over a four-year period in the 1980s.

Playing career

Club career

Born in Gisborne, Fallon started his career at Barnsley, becoming a professional in 1999 after moving up through their trainee programme. He had just begun to cement his place in the first-team when he suffered a stress fracture of his foot, which saw him struggle to regain his place.

Fallon was signed for an undisclosed fee by Swindon Town in November 2003 after a number of impressive performances against them with Barnsley, which caught the eye of manager Andy King. After breaking into the team he scored a number of important goals in the 2003–04 campaign; including an overhead kick from the edge of the box to secure a point against Bristol City.[2]

Despite the departure of Tommy Mooney, Fallon found himself regularly on the bench in the 2004–05 season. He was loaned out to Yeovil Town to increase his confidence and he scored on his debut against Scunthorpe United.[3] He failed to score in the remainder of the season, but a red card for kicking Huddersfield Town defender David Mirfin in the face meant he missed the opening two games of the following season. After Sam Parkin was sold in summer 2005, Fallon was given greater opportunities to play at Swindon, scoring on his return to action against Nottingham Forest.

He signed for League One team Swansea City in January 2006 for a fee believed to be £300,000, the second highest fee ever paid by the Welsh club. A productive year followed for the striker, scoring 13 goals in all competitions from 48 appearances. This prompted interest from Championship side Plymouth Argyle and they paid £300,000 for Fallon on 19 January 2007.[4]

Fallon had only started a handful of games for Plymouth Argyle, and had struggled to get in to the team. He went without a competitive goal at Home Park until 19 January 2008, exactly 1-year after he signed for the club, when he scored a second half equaliser against Southampton. It was only his 4th goal for the Pilgrims. The 2007/2008 campaign saw Fallon continue to be a regular bench warmer, but he continued with his optimistic attitude that he can become a first team regular, and even rejected a £250,000 move to League One side Southend United,[5] in January 2008.

On 29 September 2009, Fallon scored the winning goal for Plymouth against Peterborough United earning the Pilgrims their first win of the season after seven straight defeats, lifting them off the bottom of the table. Fallon then scored the opening goal in Argyle's next game against Scunthorpe United which they also won 2–1.

On the opening day of the 2010–11 season, Fallon played the full 90 minutes and was the provider for Luke Summerfield's winning goal in Plymouth's 1–0 win over pre-season promotion favourites Southampton. On 25 November, he joined Ipswich Town on loan,[6] returning to Plymouth on 17 January 2011.[7]

On 2 August 2011, Fallon signed a one-month contract with Yeovil Town after a short trial. Despite featuring in all five of Yeovil's games, he was released on 31 August 2011.

On 14 September 2011, he signed a two-year deal with Scottish Premier League club Aberdeen. [8] With only two league goals in his first season at Aberdeen, Fallon's performances in the Scottish Cup earned him much greater acclaim. After scoring in Aberdeen's 4–0, 4th round victory over Forfar Athletic,[9] he set up Aberdeen's opener in the 5th round 2–1 win over Queen of the South.[10] Fallon then scored both goals in the 2–1 quarter final win against Motherwell[11] to become the Player of the Round.[12] Although Aberdeen lost the semi-final 2–1 against Hibernian,[13] Fallon's second half equaliser went on to be voted the PFA Goal of the Season. On the 13th of May 2013 Fallon was released by Aberdeen.[14]

On July 12, 2013, Fallon joined Scottish Premier League side St. Johnstone on a free transfer,[15] the deal was completed in time for Fallon to play a part, if called upon, in St. Johnstone's UEFA Europa League second qualifying round tie against Norwegian Tippeligaen side Rosenborg.[16] On 31 January 2014, Fallon left St. Johnstone by mutual consent.[17]

On 17 February 2014, Fallon joined Crawley Town until the end of the 2013–14 season.[18]

On 26 September 2014, Fallon joined Scunthorpe United on a short term deal.[19] Fallon scored on his Scunthorpe début in a 3-2 loss to Oldham Athletic on 27 September 2014.[20]

International career

Despite being born in New Zealand and having a father who coached New Zealand at the 1982 World Cup,[21] Fallon chose to represent England at junior level. He played international football for England at U16, U17, U18, U19 and U20 levels and switched when FIFA changed the eligibility rules.[22]

He did, however, represent New Zealand in an unofficial U-16 World Cup in France in 1998 where Wynton Rufer was the coach. Shortly after, he departed for England to be an apprentice at Barnsley.

In January 2006, New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert suggested that Fallon might still get a chance to represent New Zealand at senior level. Herbert claimed that the only reason why Fallon wasn’t picked was due to lack of correspondence from FIFA regarding this matter. Fallon had until he was 21 years old to get clearance from FIFA to change nationalities. It found, however, that Fallon did not apply in the 2004 window to change allegiance for over-21s players. This year-long window was made available by FIFA upon introduction of a rule which allows players with dual nationality to switch their allegiance before their 21st birthday. Under this criterion Fallon could not be available for New Zealand.

On 3 June 2009, FIFA Congress passed a motion removing the age limit for changing associations for players who had already played for a country's national team at youth level under article 18 of the Regulations Governing the Application of the FIFA Statutes. This allowed for the possibility of Fallon again representing New Zealand.[22]

In August 2009, Fallon was called up to the New Zealand squad for a friendly against Jordan the following month and the crucial two-legged World Cup play-off matches against Bahrain later in the year.[23] Fallon scored on debut in the match against Jordan, which New Zealand won 3–1.

On 14 November 2009, Fallon scored the only goal in the second leg of New Zealand's World Cup qualifier against Bahrain, to send New Zealand to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, their first appearance at the finals in 28 years.[24] Fallon played in all three of New Zealand's finals games.

International goals

Scores and results list New Zealand's goal tally first.[25]
# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 9 September 2009 King Abdullah II Stadium, Amman, Jordan  Jordan 2–1 3–1 Friendly
2 14 November 2009 Westpac Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand  Bahrain 1–0 1–0 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualification
3 4 June 2010 Ljudski vrt, Maribor, Slovenia  Slovenia 1–1 1–3 Friendly
4 20 November 2013 Westpac Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand  Mexico 2–3 2–4 2014 FIFA World Cup Qualification

Personal life

Fallon's mother, Mere, is of Māori descent.[26] He has a brother called Sean and a sister called Bianca.[26]

See also

References

  1. ^ "List of Players" (PDF). FIFA. Retrieved 16 June 2010.
  2. ^ "Fallon Overhead Kick". YouTube. 31 October 2006.
  3. ^ "Yeovil 4–3 Scunthorpe". BBC. 22 February 2005. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
  4. ^ "Fallon completes Plymouth switch". BBC Sport. 19 January 2007. Retrieved 12 August 2008.
  5. ^ Charlton striker joins Southend
  6. ^ "Ipswich Town sign Rory Fallon and Gianni Zuiverloon". BBC Sport. 25 November 2010. Retrieved 25 November 2010.
  7. ^ "Loan striker Rory Fallon leaves Ipswich Town early". BBC Sport. 17 January 2011. Retrieved 17 January 2011.
  8. ^ "Rory Fallon is now a Don". Aberdeen Football Club. 14 September 2011. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
  9. ^ "Forfar 0 – 4 Aberdeen". BBC Sport. 7 January 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
  10. ^ "Queen of the South 1 – 2 Aberdeen". BBC Sport. 14 February 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
  11. ^ "Motherwell 1 – 2 Aberdeen". BBC Sport. 11 March 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
  12. ^ "Player of the Round". Scottish Football Association. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
  13. ^ "Aberdeen 1 – 2 Hibernian". BBC Sport. 14 April 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
  14. ^ "PFA Scotland Awards". stv.tv. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
  15. ^ http://www.perthstjohnstonefc.co.uk/newsitemsdetail.php?param=2603
  16. ^ http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/season=2014/matches/round=2000466/match=2012289/prematch/player-lists/index.html
  17. ^ "TRANSFER DEADLINE DAY BUSINESS UPDATE". perthstjohnstonefc.co.uk. 31 January 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  18. ^ "Rory's a Red". Crawley Town FC. 17 February 2014.
  19. ^ "Rory Fallon: Scunthorpe United sign New Zealand striker". BBC Sport. 26 September 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  20. ^ "Philliskirk sinks Scunthorpe". Team Talk. 27 September 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  21. ^ "Fallon keen to play for All Whites". NZPA. 13 July 2009.
  22. ^ a b "Protect the game, protect the players, strengthen global football governance # Change of association". FIFA. 3 June 2009.
  23. ^ "Fallon earns New Zealand call-up". BBC Sport. 3 August 2009. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
  24. ^ "New Zealand 1–0 Bahrain". BBC Sport. 14 November 2009. Retrieved 14 November 2009.
  25. ^ "Rory Fallon Profile". Soccerway. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  26. ^ a b "Rory Fallon: Playing on the side of God". The Herald. 10 April 2009. Retrieved 8 January 2010. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

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