Boss Paul Lambert feels Town are currently in a seven or eight-team mini-league at the bottom of the Championship and says he has already identified potential January recruits to come in and help his squad climb away from the bottom of the table.
The Blues go into Saturday’s game at Nottingham Forest six points plus goal difference from safety with four teams - Bolton, Hull, Millwall and Reading - ahead of them on 17 points. Ahead of that quartet at present are Rotherham, Brentford and Preston.
"Looking at it, it’s a seven or eight-team league we’re in at the minute,” Lambert reflected. "We have to finish fourth or above.
"But they need a bit of help and we’ll try and get them in, that’s for sure. There are lads we’ve identified to try and get and we’ll do everything we can to try and get them in.”
He says the mood in the squad has been fine despite the disappointment of Wednesday’s 3-2 home defeat to Bristol City.
"They’re really upbeat, they’re really positive because they know they’re playing well,” he added.
"That’s the secret, you keep playing the way you’re doing, cut out the basic errors and you’ll get results. The performance levels are really high.
"I can’t ask any more than they way they’re playing and I think everybody recognises that. The level of football we’re playing at the minute is really high, we just have to cut out the basic errors. Regarding training and playing, there’s no way I could have got any more out of them.”
Looking back at the nine-minute period in which the Blues scored once and conceded three in the second half against the Robins, he added: "That was a bit silly, a bit unprofessional from us, conceding a goal after we’ve scored. As I said before, the second goal was the one which really riled me.”
Did he feel his side were a bit shell-shocked after that? "We still gave it a go. Goals give you a body blow, you’ve got to come back from it.
"We kept on pushing and pushing to try and get the goal, it never materialised and we got beaten but we shouldn’t have been in that position, we shouldn’t have drawn it, let alone lost it. We move on and go to the next one.”
"He added: "It’s my job to keep them upbeat and anybody that knows me, I’m not one to get down too often.”