Boss Paul Jewell admits that he is finding it difficult to add experienced loan players to his squad. The Blues manager is looking to bolster his midfield ahead of Saturday’s game at Leeds, while he has confirmed that he did eventually make an approach for Aston Villa striker Nathan Delfouneso as well as West Brom’s Simon Cox.
The Blues are without skipper David Norris for Saturday’s game due to suspension, while Jimmy Bullard (hamstring) is a doubt and Colin Healy (torn stomach muscle) is unlikely to be back.
Jewell could look to youngsters such as Luke Hyam, but the Town boss says he’d prefer to bring in one or two more seasoned campaigners as cover: "Luke’s played for the first team a couple of times and I’ve no doubt he’s going to be a good player, but we’d like to have a bit of experience in there going into a game, which is why we’re trying to use the loan market. But at the moment we’re finding it very difficult.
"We tried to get Nathan Delfouneso but he went to Burnley. You look at the league table and you don’t blame him for that. We tried to get Simon Cox too.
"We’ve made a couple of enquiries for Premier League players in the middle of the park and a couple of them having been knocked back by their managers because they’re in their 25 and they want to save them until after this weekend with the cup matches going on. We could do with a couple in though.”
As of yesterday, the attempts to add to the squad were continuing: "Even as we speak Steve McCall and Chris Hutchings will be on the phone trying to get someone in. Whether we can or not is another thing.”
Jewell says that Tuesday’s defeat to Reading told him nothing he didn’t already know regarding his squad’s strengths and weaknesses: "I knew before Tuesday’s game that I needed one or two more. When we were winning games and people were getting excited, I was trying to keep a top hat on it.
"If we can get three wins that gives us 54 points. I’m not being negative, I’m just trying to be realistic. When we came in we were in a little bit of trouble and we’re still not out of that, and we’re not out of that because we’ve got to improve in certain areas.”
The Town boss is hoping the season ends positively, although preparing for 2011/12 is his main concern: "We want the season to finish well, and then we put in a performance like we did on Tuesday and that was disappointing.
"It’s a long-term thing, as long-term as football management ever gets anyway. Nothing’s about this season, it’s about making sure we consolidate this season, put this season behind us and start building now for next season. But we’ve still got to make sure we get the points on the board.”