Town manager Paul Jewell says the squad he has inherited from Roy Keane is strong enough to secure their position in the Championship, but feels new additions would give everyone at Portman Road a lift.

Jewell said: “I think if you said to me that I couldn’t sign anybody between now and the end of the season, there’s enough here. But I think, like everyone, sometimes you need the impetus provided by new players.

“I have to say though, I’ve been really impressed with the players already here, even though we lost last week. I’m impressed with their effort, we just need to get them to settle down a little bit on the ball. But when you’ve lost nine of the last 11, that happens.

“If we managed to win two or three on the spin, you’d see a different team, and that’s the same anywhere you go.

“At the start of the season, when we were winning matches, the game probably looked easy, now all of a sudden, you lose a few games, lose a bit of confidence and everything looks hard. We just need a few results, but I’ve got faith in the players we’ve got here.”

With loanee Rory Fallon returning to Plymouth last week, a frontman looks to be on the new manager’s wish-list, although he’s not 100% certain that he will be adding to his attacking options: “I’m not saying we’re definitely going to sign a striker, I’m thinking that the more good quality players you have trying to get in your team - without being ridiculous like Manchester City - helps everybody.

“We’ll try and improve the squad obviously, but if players walk through the door, we want the players already here to rise to the challenge, not think ‘That’s me out the door’, because that isn’t the case.

“There might well be players leaving, I don’t know, but from what I’ve seen so far, I’m not in a rush to move anybody on.”

The Town boss says his first full week at Playford Road has gone well: “The effort of the players has been terrific, it’s been a good week’s training.

“Hopefully, the result on Saturday will reflect that, that’s the main thing. The players’ effort has been unstinting and we’ve been working extremely hard on lots of things.

“Let’s hope we’ll see the benefits over the rest of the season. It’s going to take time, things do take time, but hopefully we’ll given them some more ideas and hopefully we can put them into practice.

“It’s definitely a long-term project we’ve got here. That was one of the draws for me; it was a project not just about winning on Saturday.

“I’m not daft, I know we’re in a bit of a dog fight, but I’m more than confident that we can get out of it and we’re looking forward to happier times and looking up rather than down. But at the moment we are in the mire and we’ve got to fight to get out of it.”

Photo: Action Images

Back_The_Boss added 14:09 - Jan 21 C'mon PJ, sign 'em up!
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bluelady added 16:38 - Jan 21 For gods sake you lot keane proved rash buying doesnt work, not a week in the job and some moaning he ain't signed anyone!!!! Surely its best he assesses what he has and brings in right players? As for saying we will see at five o clock Friday what happened to giving the guy time?
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4dy added 18:08 - Jan 21 been reading all comments(well most)about making dream signings.this has been the case since magilton,imagine what could have happened if we did get nugent...we took the mick out of his signings as well as keenos.we have to play with what you've got. i think pj's done the right thing and got town players together and got rid of the loanees.tomorrows anotherday i think we'll know a bit better what we reqire at 4.45pm.plus he's got to get em to stay too!gooood luck with that pj.one thing i am certian of is whoever gets signed is going to to have pace cos thats what we lack,bit like arsenal......theres only one jewell,l8rs

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Guthrum added 19:01 - Jan 21 Much what I thought. There isn't a bottomless acquisitions fund to go out and buy all the players everyone's drooling over. One or two carefully selected (and affordable) additions will have to do. Besides which, the less disruption at the moment, the better. Roy Keane assembled a team which was good enough to lose only one game (to the division leaders) between 7th August and 27th September. Most of those players are still with us, the only notable exception being Andros Townsend. So Paul Jewell DOES have some decent material to work with. No doubt he can see that - and says so. At the moment, we CAN'T AFFORD to be thinking more ambitiously than survival in the Championship. Anything better will, realistically, have to wait until next season. So, good to see our Manager expressing confidence in his players' abilities and talking about improving their confidence and game-play. That, I believe, is what will keep us up this season. Not a mass influx of new signings.

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