Town boss Mick McCarthy wants to see Kevin Bru join his midfield compatriot Jonathan Douglas on the scoresheet having been impressed by the Mauritius international’s finishing in training.
Bru, 26, has netted twice in his 30 starts and 15 sub appearances since joining the Blues in the summer of 2014 following a successful trial, the first in last season’s 4-2 home win against Birmingham and the second the opening goal of this campaign in the 2-2 draw at Brentford.
Douglas, who was 34 last Sunday, has scored in Town’s last two matches, the 5-2 victory at Rotherham and Saturday’s 2-2 home draw with Wolves.
McCarthy is confident that the Irishman can maintain that form in front of goal throughout the remainder of the season.
"No problem,” the Blues boss insisted. "The distance he covers has been [the most] of every player that we’ve played against over the last three or four games, that’s somebody of 34. You wouldn’t think that the amount of work he does.
"He got eight goals last year with Brentford, so I’ve no doubt he’ll get goals, he’s got good quality.
"We need more out of Bru. He’s been brilliant, Kev, but then get in the box. I watched him finishing with TC last Friday morning and he’s a fabulous finisher.
"He’s a great technical player Kevin Bru and he’s really added and helped us kick on with our performances and our results. Goals from there and we’ll be a lot better off.”
Yesterday was the final day on which Football League clubs were able to sign players on emergency loans with Luke Hyam’s temporary switch to Rotherham the most significant involving the Blues.
Right-back Josh Emmanuel moved to Crawley and keeper Michael Crowe to Stevenage, while striker James Alabi joined Grimsby the previous day. McCarthy had previously ruled out adding anyone to his squad.
He says the loan system works well for the Blues from both angles with Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Ryan Fraser on season-long loans from Arsenal and Bournemouth respectively.
"Of course it does,” he said. "We’ve had Ainsley Maitland-Niles here and he’s been great. He’s getting really good competitive games.
"He’ll certainly be a more-rounded player and a better player because he’s playing competitive football and he’s playing in a league which is different to the Premier League and different to the Champions League, which he’s played in.
"It’s a league which is competitive from back to front, all across the middle and everywhere else, not people letting you have the ball and playing in front of you, and I think he’s got used to that.
"We let players out that go and play and get games - Matt Clarke, James Alabi, Michael Crowe’s gone out now.
"Luke Hyam has gone out for different reasons, he’s been a good player for us, but he’s coming back from injury and if he can help Rotherham and it helps us get a player back to the level he was, then that’ll be great. I’ve no complaints, I think it works perfectly, the loan market.”