Town boss Roy Keane says he has one more new player in mind after the two he is close to signing. The Blues manager singled out youngster Connor Wickham for praise after his performance in last night's friendly defeat to Finn Harps.

Talking to the Irish Herald, Keane said: "Yesterday we agreed a price with a club for two players, who I am hoping to meet in the next 24 to 48 hours and I have one other player in mind, but that should be it. One of them might be Irish but it doesn't matter where they're from, does it?"

Sunderland pair Daryl Murphy and Carlos Edwards appear to be the most likely candidates to be the double signing, while team-mate Paul McShane has also been strongly linked, especially in Ireland.

However, Keane appears to be trying to take the focus away from his old club: "Daryl and Paul are two players who did very well for me at Sunderland, but sometimes I have to move on."

Keane felt last night's match was a useful exercise: "I enjoyed the game, Finn Harps played very, very well. They have some good young players and it was the perfect pre-season game for us, it was a real reminder.

"That's why I like coming over to Ireland to play matches. These teams don't hold back. It was good for us. We got no injuries, young Connor Wickham did well for us, those were the positives. The negative was that we got beat.

"I learned a lot about my players last night, which is the whole idea of pre-season. This is the first time I really had the whole group. I took over last season with two games to go and we had a few players missing due to injury, so I am taking stock very quickly of what we have and what we don't have."

Keane added that he would like to see his Irish players push on into their national team: "I hope that international football is in the players' mindsets. The boy Delaney, Owen Garvan, Quinner, Alex Bruce and if I was to sign one or two more, you'd hope they have a chance of getting into the Irish squad."

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