John Coleman says his third summer signing will ‘excite the fans’ after Tom Allan put pen to paper on a season-long loan from Newcastle United.
Newcastle-born Allan, 20, joined the Magpies in 2012 from junior football and has come through the ranks.
He is highly rated at St James’ Park, having started as a winger but he has also played up front, scoring 17 goals last season for the Under 23s and captaining the side.
He made his Newcastle debut against Rochdale in the FA Cup third round replay in January and has regularly trained with the first team.
Allan will add to the attacking options after Jordan Clark signed for Luton Town and with Sean McConville coming back from an Achilles injury.
“Tom is someone we have known about for a while,” said manager John Coleman. “Losing Jordan and with Sean being out for a little bit, we needed more attacking options.
“The fact he can play wide or up front is a bonus. Tom is very quick and energetic and will excite the fans and the type of football we want to play this season is going to be very high energy, high octane, and he ticks all the boxes.
“He is a great lad as well, everyone speaks highly of him and hopefully he will hit the ground running.
“We have started to build a good relationship with Newcastle United and hopefully he can have the same success that Dan Barlaser had here.
“This is a chance for him to kick start his career and play proper men’s football.”
Tom said: “I can’t wait to get started, now is the time to make the step up and get some games under my belt in league football.
“Hopefully I can keep progressing and keep up the goalscoring from last season.
“When I first heard Accrington were interested I did speak to Dan Barlaser and he couldn’t speak highly enough of the club, it’s a great set up and great set of lads and the manager was keen so it was perfect really.
“I rely on raw pace, I like getting in behind, running at people, I scored quite a few goals last year and hopefully I can do that this year and add to the team.”
Allan is the third Stanley signing this summer after the permanent signing of defender Cameron Burgess and Ryan Cassidy's loan move from Watford.