Rory Fallon

Rory Michael Fallon (born 20 March 1982) is an English-New Zealand footballer who plays for Bristol Rovers. 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.