Boss Roy Keane says he needs to add one more loan player to his squad having signed Sunderland’s Jack Colback for a second time at the end of last week. The 20-year-old looks set to make his second Town debut in Tuesday’s game at Watford.
Speaking after Saturday’s defeat to Coventry, Keane said he was pleased to have completed the midfielder’s signing: "We’re glad to get Jack, we’ve been trying to sort it out for a week. We were never in a mad rush for Saturday, we weren’t going to force it because Jack had a few things to sort out and one or two other options.
"He’ll be training with us on Sunday and he’s coming here to play games. He’ll come into the squad on Tuesday and we’ll see how the players respond over the next couple of days.
"I’m pleased with Jack, but we still probably need one more. Jack’s a good lad and it helps that he knows the club. The fans will be pleased and I know the staff and myself are pleased to have him in the door and I’m sure the players will be as well because he can play in a number of positions."
Colback had offers from a number of other Championship clubs but Keane says he was always hopeful that last season's Players' Player of the Year would opt for a return to Portman Road: "Jack had a few things to weigh up but I was always quietly confident that he would come here.”
Keane refused to blame his use of a single central striker for Saturday's defeat: "The two goals we conceded were set pieces, the penalty and the corner.
"We’ll look at the way we set up, but I think it’s always an easy excuse for a manager to say ‘I got it wrong, we should have played him’. I thought the players who started the game were good enough to get something out of it.
"I was pleased to go in 1-0 at half-time. I thought we couldn’t have got any worse, and we weren’t, but then we gave the penalty away.
"If we keep a clean sheet in the second half, we’re confident we can get one goal. I don’t think we’re a team capable of scoring three or four goals, but we can certainly score one at home. The penalty was a really bad goal to give away.”
The Blues boss felt Gareth McAuley went to ground too readily: "You’re always telling your defenders to stay on their feet, as soon as you go off your feet there’s trouble.
"We’ve had it before, the first couple of QPR goals came from players going off their feet. Stay on your feet, it’s not all about being a hero and diving in, you’ve got to use your brain. But we move on, we’ve got another tough game on Tuesday.”
Keane admitted his side again made too little of their set pieces against the Sky Blues: "Whether we can give them credit for it or their goalkeeper, we were a bit predictable. We don’t want our players to be robotic, we do drills with them, but if they see something we tell them to go and do it.
"Set pieces are massive in the Championship and we were not good enough in terms of defending and also going forward.”
Overall, Keane felt his team might have grabbed a point from the game: "As a manager you’ve got to take your medicine. They beat us 2-1 but I still think there was enough in it for us to get something out of it. But ifs and ands are no good to you, you’ve got to go and do the business.
"We’ve had games earlier in the season where I don’t think we’ve played particularly well, not had that much possession and won. It is all about putting the ball in the back of the net, one way or another. Set pieces or otherwise a goal’s a goal."