Town boss Paul Jewell says he will use the two-week international break to work on the fitness of his three new signings and a couple of the players who joined the squad earlier in the summer. Talismanic midfielder Jimmy Bullard in particular is off the pace having been away from former club Hull for a month before joining the Blues on Thursday.

Speaking after Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Leeds, Jewell said: “It’s a two-week break now and tonight is the time to enjoy the victory.

“I thought Daryl Murphy and Ibrahima Sonko came in and considering they haven’t played for a while did terrifically well, although Sonko was out on his feet for the last 15 minutes.

“However, we got the victory. We needed something. We had a bit of fortune and today was our day.”

The Blues boss says new fitness coach Andy Liddell will be a busy man over the next fortnight: “We need to get some fitness work into Jimmy and into Sonko and probably Daryl Murphy, and also one or two others.

“We got Jay Emmanuel-Thomas late. I wish we could have had him in pre-season because he’s not fit.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’re not going to sit back in these two weeks. We’ve got a lot of work to do on the training pitch, fitness-wise.

“And if we can get some more players in before the window closes [on Wednesday] or even after that on loan, that’s what we’ll try and do. We’re not sat here thinking everything is hunky dory, we need to improve.”

Sonko won plenty of plaudits for his debut and Jewell says Town’s first ever Senegalese player has a presence about him: “With no disrespect to what we’ve had, when you’re stood in the tunnel and you look at Sonko, and you look again, you see him and the size of him, he’s an imposing figure.

“Too many times this season we’ve been a bit weak at the back. He’s not Beckenbauer, but he puts his body on the line, he heads it and kicks it and he’s played at the top level. And that’s what we need — someone who’s going to defend for their life.

“We were disappointed with their goal and a couple of times they could have got in. I know he will get better.”

The Town manager said Bullard made an impression despite his lack of fitness: “He’s had two freekicks and if anyone else had hit those freekicks the whole ground would have been booing. But because it was the prodigal son there wasn’t any!

“But that’s the effect he has. He’s infectious and he wants to get on the ball. He’s not fit, I think everyone can see that, but he definitely has an impact on the place, the crowd and the players, and we’re delighted to have him.

“Mark Kennedy did very well [when moved to the left side] and we only brought him off because we were trying to get Daryl going down that left-hand side, and today it worked out for us.”

Jewell, who admitted he considered a switch back to a three-man central midfield for Saturday's match before opting to stick with 4-4-2, warns fans that it might take some time for his side to start playing attractive football: “At half-time I said to the players they’ve got to go up against their man, Leeds were winning every battle all over the park in the first half.

“It’s not going to be pretty here for a while. I think anyone who understands football knows that when things are evolving you’ve sometimes got to take steps back to go forwards.

“We don’t want to take too many fives and sevens but I think there are certain things that we’re going to have to persevere with. It might have to be ugly, we might have to put in battling performances.

“I hear a lot about certain clubs’ ways, but it’s all about winning games. If we have to build things slowly by being ugly to get to the better football we want to play, that’s what we will have to do. That’s what successful clubs do.”

The Liverpudlian admits that the result was by far the most important thing on Saturday: “We know it’s not going to cloud everywhere where we need to be better but for the players and certainly the staff and manager, and supporters, it’s a huge fillip and pick-me-up. However we got it with the situation we’ve been in, we’ll take it.

“We were on the floor today going in there and we’ve come away with three points. It doesn’t say in the paper that we were lucky, it just says we’ve taken the points. And if it does say in the paper that we were lucky, we don’t care!”

Photo: Action Images

scooterblue added 09:55 - Aug 29 starter for ten then. keep it up
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brian_a_mul added 10:19 - Aug 29 an important 3pts and puts a positive feel going into 2 week break. The hard fitness work will be easier on the back of a win.
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jas0999 added 10:27 - Aug 29 Big week. Clegg now needs to step up to the plate and actually agree some fees before the window closes. ME may have to step in ... he did very well securing the Bullard signing. Sadly, Clegg has agreed just ONE fee all Summer (Cresswell's not agreed and Clegg was on holiday when we signed Chopra). A CB and RB needed. Plus, depending upon whether Murphy has been brought in as a striker/Winger, we need a striker or winger (that's what PJ said anyway). Oh, and then there is the back-up keeper and replacements for anyone who leaves! Should be a good week.

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ITFC4daprem added 10:29 - Aug 29 hopefully no injury mainly Stockdale
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pazelle added 10:47 - Aug 29 What does fillip mean?
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ozzydog added 10:52 - Aug 29 It is now obvious how much damage beano did to ITFC. PJ has a complete rebuilding job to do because of that puerile excuse for a manager,I hope ME, who appointed beano, gives PJ all the support he needs. COYB
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Mark added 11:12 - Aug 29 Sonko looks a fantastic signing, as Jewell said he is big and strong, and to get him for a free transfer looks really good business. Interesting that Emmanuel-Thomas isn''t fit. He was dreadful on Saturday, apart from making the run which resulted in the red card and turning the game around of course! It's never nice to read about a team having to "be ugly" but at least Jewell is taking about that as part of the road to playing the football we want to play. With Keane, playing ugly seemed to be his preferred style! Yes, a big rebuilding job still to do. Remember that taking out loans, wages and the Cresswell tribunal to come, Jewell has only spent about £3M (Drury, Chopra, Emmanuel-Thomas) which is around £5M less than we received for Wickham. Can he be expected to change our fortunes round and make a profit on transfer fees?!

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fourth added 11:17 - Aug 29 "Fillip" a "lift", a "boost" Early days, not just fitness for September October But On February mud pitches. REAL need for consistent fitness monitoring not just fitting into individuals' requests.
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pazelle added 11:33 - Aug 29 Le Fondre is overrated and wouldn't give our forward line any sort of fillip. Olly Mann looked worth a punt. Simon Cox would be amazing but Chopra, Priskin and JET are as good as you'll get in the Championship.
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Raedwald_625 added 11:34 - Aug 29 Fitness will come. How about working on 'pass and move'? Basic old-fashioned ball control could be useful too.
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WickedBlue added 11:37 - Aug 29 @jas0999 Today we have things such as telephones, and the internet that enables you to talk over long distances. So if you think Clegg had nothing to do with signings because he was away on holiday then you're a fool....The man has done well for us, get off his back!
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itfc1981 added 12:24 - Aug 29 WickedBlue I think we have had just about enough Clegg protection. It is quite clear Clegg needed help with transfers, thats why Jewell and Evans have stepped in. He was out of his depth.
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pmason added 12:30 - Aug 29 ill reserve my judement on (s)onko until he has a steady 10 games under his belt where he hasnt made a robbie fowler like the rest of them .... 3 points from the next 2 games would be a small improvement ... those of you who wish for top 6 ... yep that would be nice, but so would geting off shutter island
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oldbri added 12:47 - Aug 29 Why dont we get victorywilhappen to do Cleggs job,then we would have loads of players. Say it and it will happen.
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BigJools added 12:52 - Aug 29 Will be surprised if Le Fondre does anything at this level- Pretty lazy player even if he is cheap. League one player at best-would sooner have scotland playing in a 4-4-2 with Chopra
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Warkys_Tash added 13:16 - Aug 29 @VictoryWillHappen: Stockdale is a class keeper & you should be delighted (I am!) that PJ has managed to attract a future England Number1 to our club in the position we are in! We havent been top 6 Championship for 6 years. Stockdale is quality & will get us many more points this season on games we would have lost or drawn.
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TractorBeezer added 13:57 - Aug 29 pmason You're the one that needs a fillip
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Rob88_ITFC added 15:16 - Aug 29 Raedwald - I second that. I always find the ability to string a few passes together beneficial when playing football. Are inability to do this has been obvious for some time but it really showed when Leeds went down to 10 and started sitting back and we still struggled to play the ball out of our half (without hoofing). We only really managed to do anything when Bullard came on, dropping deep picking it up and passing it along the ground. In my opinion (and it is only my opinion) our players (minus a few exceptions) lack two very fundamental attributes, confidence on the ball and creativity (both on and off the ball).

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Rob88_ITFC added 15:19 - Aug 29 P.S I say they lack two fundamental attributes, they lack more than two but confidence and creativity would see us improve ten fold.
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DiamondGezzer added 15:26 - Aug 29 After the last two games, I was praying for a draw, so I am delighted with the win. Nobody is saying we're the finished article, but the three good signings last week certainly helped.
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toforoge added 15:29 - Aug 29 Owning players has been realy expensive over the larst few years and many of the players have been effective for less than a year. Norris, Mcauley ,Priskin .Fulop,Scotland ,Martin, leadbitter, etc with little or no return. Players are spending on average less time at each club anyway so idont see the problem with a few loans especialy if they are a standard above what we could otherwise get ie stockdale. I agree it would be good to have more younger lower league players coming in who we could afford to give longer contracts ie creswell, and build a team but that would require patients which seems to extend to about a week in football now.

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churchmans added 19:54 - Aug 29 dont worry about the stocdale situation we will sign him when we go up! besides fulham is one of the clubs i mentioned that we could blow out of the water with regard to transfer fees! ME makes AL FAYED loook like steptoe.
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ericgates added 21:26 - Aug 29 Come on PJ, get Suler in. He looks amazing and victorywilhappen should get a massive pat on the back if it comes off!
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alexsmith111 added 03:17 - Aug 30 Scotland can do damage from bench, chopra, thomas and murphy can do the job, cash in on priskin and use murray as and when
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