Boss Roy Keane had no complaints at the result after his side’s 1-1 home draw with Preston North End. The Town manager says he is looking sign three or four new players before the transfer window closes on Tuesday.
Keane said: "We huffed and puffed and brought all our three substitutes on to try and win the game.
"But I can't have any complaints about the result. If anything, Preston looked more dangerous on the break.
"It was frustrating, but I don't think we did enough to win the game. We had a lot of half chances but the hardest part of football is putting the ball in the back of the net and we didn't do that in the second half.
"When Preston went down to 10 men, it should have been easier in terms of moving the ball a bit quicker and more penetration, but we huffed and puffed and never really opened them up.
"We had no player today with the quality that could go and get a goal for us, so I can have no complaints over the result.
"The effort was there, I can't fault the players for that, but we lacked the quality in the final third and that is what football is all about.
"I suppose this game shows why we're desperately trying to add to our squad. At the moment we're nowhere near but I'm expecting a busy couple of days. I certainly won't be putting my feet up and hopefully I can bring three, maybe four, players in before Tuesday.
"I have a very good idea of the areas I want to strengthen and there's a lot of hard work ahead."
Sunderland pair Carlos Edwards and Grant Leadbitter have been in talks with the Blues in the latter part of the week with personal terms understood to be the sticking point. The pair are certain to have to take significant drops in pay when moving from the Premier League to the Championship.
Preston boss Alan Irvine was unhappy at the red card shown to Callum Davidson for handball: "I thought it was a poor decision. We're told you have to make your body bigger - that's the criteria for it to be a red card.
"But Callum had his arms in front of his body. It was a natural reaction when someone smashes the ball at you from four yards."
Irvine was pleased with his team's response to being a man down: "They're a terrific group of players. They know their limitations, but they also know they'll get rewarded for working hard.
"They're prepared to do the horrible jobs to make sure we stay in games. We spoke about it at half-time and said things could go one of two ways. We could either feel sorry for ourselves and be a bit angry about what had happened or go out and get a good result with one man short.
"That was what we did and, if we'd chosen our passes better on the counter-attack, it might have been a different result."