Town manager Roy Keane says he’s delighted with his players’ efforts so far this season. However, despite an excellent start which has seen the Blues into second in the Championship, the Town boss warns that there’s a long way to go.
Keane said: "I’m delighted with the players, I have to say. They’re all buckling down. We still have a relatively youngish squad in terms of experience, but they’re all having a go. I’m very pleased with them. I’m more than pleased with them.
"They’re a good bunch. They’re good lads and they are representing our club well. We’ve had a tough start and we’ve now got another three away games.
"They’ve done the club well so far, but we know there are only seven games gone and there’s a long way to go yet. But we’ve given ourselves a chance of having a better season than last year. We were dead and buried this time last year.”
The Blues manager is looking to add two loan players to his squad, although he feels he needs three, with Stoke midfielder Michael Tonge the latest player claimed to be amongst his targets, former loanee Jack Colback not currently being made available by Sunderland.
Keane hints that there may be more news on this front after the Carling Cup ties: "Some clubs hold on to their younger players to see how they do in certain games and they’ll also have injury problems. I still think we need three players. We just need a few more players to cover potential injury problems we might have.
"We had young Tom Eastman playing at right-back on Saturday and he’s a centre-half and Jaime Peters has done very well for us, but Jaime’s more of an attacking player.
"There are a few positions where we need strengthening and I’m pretty sure you can work out where we’re looking, but it’s easier said than done.”
Meanwhile, Keane didn’t appear overly impressed with Jason Scotland’s prediction in the wake of the Cardiff game that Connor Wickham would one day play for England: "Maybe Jason should keep his mouth shut and concentrate and focus on his own game, or maybe become Connor’s agent!”
The Town boss says he’s unhappy with the amount of hype currently surrounding Wickham: "There's too much now, give the boy a chance. The fact that the question's been asked, we'll end up talking about him.
"He's returned from injury, if we think we're going to have a good season down to one player you're sadly mistaken."
Wickham could be rested for this evening's Carling Cup tie at Millwall as he's only just back from the ankle problem he suffered in pre-season.