MARTIN Allen was about to leave Meadow Lane, with a laptop bag slung over a shoulder, a dossier on Rochdale, Notts County's next opponents, under an arm and the keys to his car in his hands, when he stopped and made an invitation.

"Do you want to talk to me?" he asked. The answer was yes, of course. Always.

Cristian Montano, or rather 'the Colombian' as Allen calls him, had just set foot back inside Meadow Lane and Allen, even in his haste, was prepared to spare time to speak of his delight, understandably so too, because he has been trying to re-sign the young striker for two months, maybe even longer.

Montano first joined Notts on August 5, on the eve of the new season, and went on to make a lasting impression during a two-month loan from West Ham United, a team Allen once played for and now managed by Sam Allardyce, who led the Magpies to a league title in 1998.

He scored on his league debut as a substitute against League One leaders Charlton Athletic at Meadow Lane, in the Magpies' first home league game of the campaign, and it set the tone, as he went on to score four goals in 12 games before leaving Meadow Lane to return to West Ham.

One of those goals was a winning strike in a 2-1 victory against Walsall in September and the last was in the final minute of his final game, against Hartlepool United.

Talk about an appropriate end-note.

Notts wanted to keep him by extending his loan, but the Hammers instead loaned him to Swindon Town and later Dagenham, of League Two, strangely and he scored one goal in four games for the Robins and three in ten for the Daggers.

Notts never gave up in their hope of re-signing him, however, and their patience and persistence has now paid off because Montano, 20, is back at Meadow Lane, originally on a one-month loan, which the Magpies hope to extend until the end of the season.

"We've been trying to get him back here for a long time," said Allen. "He was really good for the team and the supporters really liked him.

"The decision was taken out of my hands for him to go back to West Ham, but I've been speaking to Sam Allardyce quite a lot.

"And when the opportunity came up for him to come back we were there ready and waiting, having worked very hard on it for a good couple of months."

Allen is pointed about Montano's ability.

"He's a match-winner," he said. "He scores goals. He's got a great attitude and our style of play suits him.

"He's only young, but he doesn't take a lot of management. He's a cracking person.

"He's not only a good footballer, he's a good person and I like to have good people around me."

The same fans who have, for the past four months, wanted Montano back in black-and-white stripes will now, of course, be expectant. They will want the same, if not even more.

"Hopefully he will be even better," said Allen.

"He's got stronger that's for sure by playing more first-team football at Swindon and Dagenham. Those experiences will have helped him a lot.

"What we do know about him is his goal-scoring ratio is very high when he was with us. He won us games."

The hope is he will win them more in the last 18 games of the campaign because Notts still hope to mount a challenge for the play-offs.

The Magpies were, in fact, in sixth place in League One when Montano left Meadow Lane in October, though they are now in 11th, eight points adrift of the top-six.

"Earlier on in the season everyone was asking me what the key was to our success and it's having players like him (Montano) who can score goals to win you games. These players are invaluable," said Allen.

"If you don't have those players to score goals you don't win. When we lost a good one like him at that point it was a big blow and you stop winning football matches."

Montano scored three of his goals as a substitute, proving his is capable of making a huge impact in games. Allen believes he can be more than a super substitute this time. "Maybe," he said. "We'll have to wait and see.

"We've signed Jonathan Forte as well, Ben Burgess played in our last game and did very well against Walsall, made the winning goal and several other opportunities for Lee Hughes in the game.

"Cristian certainly gives us something new and exciting. It's great to have him back."

And with that, Allen jumped into his car and sped off. All are now eagerly awaiting the second coming of the Colombian.