IPSWICH boss Joe Royle today underlined his faith in goalless new boy Sam Parkin.The £450,000 ex-Swindon star has failed to find the net in Town's five pre-season games, but Royle insisted: “There is absolutely no cause for concern."

IPSWICH boss Joe Royle today underlined his faith in goalless new boy Sam Parkin.

The £450,000 ex-Swindon star has failed to find the net in Town's five pre-season games, but Royle insisted: “There is absolutely no cause for concern.

“I would far rather he had a bit of a drought now than when the season gets under way.

“Sam would love a goal - he's a striker after all - but we have seen this before with other players.

“Everything else about his game is fine. His hold-up and link-up play is excellent and he is still going in to all the right places.

“We're not worried that he hasn't got off the mark yet. You only have to look at his record to see he has goals in him.

“He has been a bit unlucky. He's missed chances and keepers have denied him with good saves, but overall we are very pleased with him and I am sure that first goal isn't far away.”

Former Chelsea youngster Parkin, 24, netted 73 times in three seasons with Swindon, and Ipswich pipped a number of Championship rivals to sign him.

Royle has tremendous faith in him and fellow new boy Nicky Forster plugging the gap left by departed pair Darren Bent and Shefki Kuqi, who grabbed 39 goals between them last season.

Although he missed the trip to Hungary after recent knee replacement surgery, Royle wasted no time in catching up with news of the two-game tour.

He said: “As soon as they came off the bus from the airport yesterday I had a staff meeting.

“We lost both games but they were against a good standard of opposition who provided a stiff test for us, which was what we wanted.”

Royle was pleased to hear assistant boss Willie Donachie and coaches Steve McCall and Andy Rhodes in positive mood at the debriefing.

He added: “There were a lot of plusses, including the way young keepers Lewis Price and Shane Supple performed, and the way other kids did their first team chances no harm.”

But Royle's search for defensive recruits continues and he remains confident of having at least one new face on board by the time Town take on Cardiff at Portman Road on Saturday week.

Before then his side have two more warm-up games, at home to Atletico Madrid on Friday and at Colchester in a week's time.

Royle said: “Atletico are one of the big boys in Spain and it is clearly going to be another tough test for us.

“But that's what we want at this stage. We haven't made it easy for ourselves in the pre-season period.”

Injured midfield pair Kevin Horlock and Jimmy Juan, who were both absent from the Hungarian trip, are in with a chance of facing the Spaniards.

Royle is also confident that Forster, who sat out Sunday's 1-0 defeat by Diosgyor after being forced off during the 3-2 loss to Ujpest two days earlier, will have recovered in time.

He said: “We don't think Nicky's thigh strain is too bad, although we certainly won't be taking any chances with any of the injured players.

“It would be nice to have a full squad from which to choose the team to face Atletico, but we will just have to wait and see how they go over the next few days.”