PAUL Trollope believes Bristol Rovers are starting to see the best of Jeff Hughes – and that there is more to come over the months ahead.

The Northern Irish winger was a £120,000 signing from Crystal Palace at the start of the season after a protracted transfer wrangle that dragged on for months.

He has played in all but one of the Pirates' games so far this season, and showed his versatility in their last outing at Hartlepool when he switched to a central midfield role – and scored the visitors' leveller in a 1-1 draw.

"The switch allowed Jeff to get in amongst the play and I thought that in the first half he was very influential and scored a good goal," said Trollope.

"By his own admission, he's not really caught alight for us – but he had a stop- start year at Palace and an ankle injury as well when he came on loan to us.

"He had not had much football at Palace in the year he was there and those circumstances mean it may take him a bit of time to get up to full match speed and intensity.

"But we have seen some really good signs from him. We know we have a good player on our hands.

"Jeff's contribution has been decent. He has a natural ability and makes difficult things look easy.

"He's an elegant player, has scored a few goals and could have had a few more.

"We need to give him time but he has great ability and a very good attitude.

"There's a history of some players taking a while to adjust to a new club and getting up to their best – we saw it with Rickie Lambert when he first came here."

Rovers' teenage striker Josh Klein-Davies has joined Blue Square South club Newport County on a month's loan and was set to make his debut against Bishops Stortford today.

Another young Bristol Rovers forward, Joe White, has had his loan spell at Chippenham Town extended to a third month.