Town manager Joe Royle has confirmed that he will be looking to bring in loanees before next week's match with Sheffield United. Royle has no names in mind as yet, but a front player seems his priority.

Saturday saw Alun Armstrong added to the injury list (hamstring) while Marcus Bent appears to be a longer term casualty than expected with back and groin problems. Richard Naylor is still not back from his knee operation and Royle says he needs to strengthen: "We do need a front player quickly. I would like to bring a couple of people in on loan if we can. It would be more likely before the league game."

At the back Town were again poor against Palace, despite a change of personnel at centre-half in recent games, Brown and Gaardsøe proving no more solid that Venus and McGreal had in previous matches.

Royle dismissed reports in Manchester last week which suggested he was interested in a number of players from his Manchester City days including Gerard Wiekens, Shaun Goater and Nicky Weaver. As yet Royle says he has not idea himself who he will bring in.

The new Town manager says he was looking to rest a few players for the Worthington Cup match on Wednesday against Middlesbrough. However, given the injury situation, he feels he may not be able to do this.

He also felt he learnt more about his side from Sunday's match than he did from the 1-0 win against Slovan Liberec on Thursday.

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