CHRIS LAKEY Matty Pattison was unveiled as Norwich City's newest recruit yesterday - and there's more on the way. The 21-year-old Newcastle midfielder is manager Glenn Roeder's second loan signing, following Birmingham defender Martin Taylor through the Carrow Road door.

CHRIS LAKEY

Matty Pattison was unveiled as Norwich City's newest recruit yesterday - and there's more on the way.

The 21-year-old Newcastle midfielder is manager Glenn Roeder's second loan signing, following Birmingham defender Martin Taylor through the Carrow Road door. And Roeder is keeping his fingers crossed that he will have doubled the intake by the time City run out against Coventry next Saturday.

"I would be very disappointed if I don't get at least two, and I would go for three if I can," said Roeder. "But I am in the process of talking to two clubs about two players and both clubs have been positive to let the players come and I know the players will come.

"I feel I have got one lined up already, I just need the manager to rubber stamp it. I am waiting on a phone call which I hope gives us permission to sign another player, if not today on Monday.

"It will be a youngish player, who will have a point to prove where he has come from because he has been brought with very good money and hasn't quite been able to break through and if I can get him in I would like to think he will come in and say 'you bought me for good money, you haven't played me much, I will show you', and we'll get the benefit of that at Norwich.

"That is the kind of player I am looking for."

Roeder believes he has that in Pattison, who admitted he has been looking to get away from St James' Park since the beginning of the season.

"He is a very good player," said Roeder. "We need some very good players and there will be more. He has enough first team experience now in the Premiership to be a young, confident player that in the situation we are in won't phase him at all. He has certainly never been a player that plays with nerves or worries about things."

Roeder had Pattison under his wing when he was Academy boss at Newcastle, and then gave him his first team debut when he became manager.

"I remember he played against Chelsea and played the whole of the second half against (Michael) Ballack - and Ballack knew he had been in a game," he said.

"Our current situation won't bother him at all. He will go out and play his football without worrying where we are in the table. He loves playing football and obviously loves winning and that's what we need to do."

Pattison was born in South Africa, where he lived until his parents took him to their native Tyneside when he was in his teens.

"He is tough," Roeder said. "His family are Geordies and then emigrated to South Africa. His first 14 years were in South Africa and then he came back, went into junior football, and very quickly Newcastle saw that potential and brought him into the academy.

"Although Newcastle is a rough, tough place to grow up, South Africa, as we know from their sportsmen, might be even tougher, and he's certainly got an edge to him."

Pattison admitted he was frustrated at St James' Park, where this season he has failed to add to his total of four starts for the Magpies.

"It has been frustrating but I knew I wasn't really going to play anyway," he said. "I have been asking since the beginning of the season to get out on loan. I knew what was coming because he (Sam Allardyce) signed a lot of players in the summer."

Roeder, meanwhile, would be happy for the deal, which runs to January 1, to be extended - or made permanent.

"Possibly - it might take a lot of convincing for Matty to leave a club as big as Newcastle," he said. "We just have to wait and see.

"The one thing I know he will want to do is play first team football. Once you have had a taste of first team football, the reserves are useless.

"Nothing is ever a waste but you don't want to play in front of 10 people, and an old man and a dog, telling you you're rubbish every week. I have no doubt Matty will do very well here."