Boss Roy Keane says that ideally he’d still like to add two or three more players to his squad. The Blues manager is hopeful of signing a loanee in the next few days, the deal having been put on hold last week.
Keane said: "We’re well short, two or three players short, we saw that the other night [against QPR]. Whether they’re experienced or young, beggars can’t be choosers, I’m not too fussy at the moment. We just need two or three players in to steady the ship.
"Tom Eastman’s a centre-half and I’m playing him at right-back. We need two or three players. A blind man could see that.”
Eastman impressed his manager with his performance against Cardiff on Saturday: "Tom did well. I always give people a chance. He had a chance at the end of last season against Sheffield United when he was unfortunate to be sent off.
"We put him in today because he’s been doing well and he’s got a nice way about him. Like a lot of the team he had a sticky first 10 minutes when Cardiff were putting us under the cosh, but good players get through that.”
Keane says the Clacton-born 18-year-old will be pleased to have provided the cross for Jason Scotland's goal: "He had a hand in the second goal and his body language was good.
"It’s not his ideal position, he’s a centre-half but I see other clubs and other managers playing international players at right-back and we thought we’d give him a chance and he did reasonably well.
"I think Carlos gave him a hand with his experience and his workrate. He’ll be pleased, particularly with the hand in the second goal.”
Keane was happy with the rest of his defence and similarly pleased with his strikers, particularly Connor Wickham: "Top people have presence and he gives us something. He’s different to the other strikers we have. Jason’s hold-up play is different and he likes to drop in the hole. Tamás I thought did well in his 10 minutes.
"Connor’s got a bit of everything. We’re pleased with him. In an ideal world we’d like to be holding him back but because we lost strikers and because I didn’t get one or two of the other strikers I was after, we were forced to play him.”
Keane expects Cardiff to bounce back after Saturday's defeat and says they will certainly be amongst the contenders come May: "If you finish ahead of Cardiff you’ve got a good chance of getting out of this league. Cardiff will be there or thereabouts, that’s guaranteed.”