Boss Roy Keane says that ideally he’d still like to add two or three more players to his squad. The Blues manager is hopeful of signing a loanee in the next few days, the deal having been put on hold last week.

Keane said: “We’re well short, two or three players short, we saw that the other night [against QPR]. Whether they’re experienced or young, beggars can’t be choosers, I’m not too fussy at the moment. We just need two or three players in to steady the ship.

“Tom Eastman’s a centre-half and I’m playing him at right-back. We need two or three players. A blind man could see that.”

Eastman impressed his manager with his performance against Cardiff on Saturday: “Tom did well. I always give people a chance. He had a chance at the end of last season against Sheffield United when he was unfortunate to be sent off.

“We put him in today because he’s been doing well and he’s got a nice way about him. Like a lot of the team he had a sticky first 10 minutes when Cardiff were putting us under the cosh, but good players get through that.”

Keane says the Clacton-born 18-year-old will be pleased to have provided the cross for Jason Scotland's goal: “He had a hand in the second goal and his body language was good.

"It’s not his ideal position, he’s a centre-half but I see other clubs and other managers playing international players at right-back and we thought we’d give him a chance and he did reasonably well.

“I think Carlos gave him a hand with his experience and his workrate. He’ll be pleased, particularly with the hand in the second goal.”

Keane was happy with the rest of his defence and similarly pleased with his strikers, particularly Connor Wickham: “Top people have presence and he gives us something. He’s different to the other strikers we have. Jason’s hold-up play is different and he likes to drop in the hole. Tamás I thought did well in his 10 minutes.

“Connor’s got a bit of everything. We’re pleased with him. In an ideal world we’d like to be holding him back but because we lost strikers and because I didn’t get one or two of the other strikers I was after, we were forced to play him.”

Keane expects Cardiff to bounce back after Saturday's defeat and says they will certainly be amongst the contenders come May: “If you finish ahead of Cardiff you’ve got a good chance of getting out of this league. Cardiff will be there or thereabouts, that’s guaranteed.”

Photo: Action Images

under_the_sun666 added 13:24 - Sep 20 I agree with Zippy we need a Right Back as jamie peters gets merked every game lol
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Back_The_Boss added 13:49 - Sep 20 2 or 3 more loan signings could prove very useful and add to the small squad that we have. COYB! Keep the good run going.
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WickedBlue added 14:10 - Sep 20 @zippyrainbow your an idiot...don't you actually read any of RK interviews? You know he has said all along he wanted players but ME wanted to to sell first. Nothing to do with an RK love in just facts you tend to ignore as you hate RK....best thing for you, to stop making yourself look like a prize pr!ck? Just zip it....
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dude added 14:26 - Sep 20 Hi Zippy - this is definitely for you: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/heart-attack-stroke-prone-arteries-com
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Bergholtblue added 15:23 - Sep 20 I thought that when the Premiership teams named their 25, there was going to be an abundance of players surplus to requirements. Where are they all? If you have a look at the squad lists, a lot of teams could not get the full compliment of 25, but they did have 30 or 40 U21, youth team academy players that were exempt from the list. Getting an experienced player to come to use will be bloody difficult now, I think it will be a relatively inexperienced youngster. With any luck someone in the ilk of Gio or Colback. The key thing is patience is a virtue.

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blue_boi94 added 16:37 - Sep 20 a right back. it would be nice for colback to come back
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lawshallgirls added 17:22 - Sep 20 colback and we can play this formation and we dont even have to have a right back 3-1-3-1-2 fullop Mccauley Smith O'dea Hyam Edwards Norris Townsend Colback Wickham Scotland
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Johnny_Boy added 17:48 - Sep 20 Like I said yesterday.... we need another striker. Well done Roy for highlighting the problem.
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Big_Foot_Blue added 18:47 - Sep 20 @lawshallgirls.... No Leadbitter then? Surely he has a shout of a 1st team place, he has been a pace setter and example setter since his arrival afterall
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lunatic38 added 20:53 - Sep 20 Another central midfielder is a certainty and it wont be a case of dropping a player but this addition will be another option for the manger, we have a young central midfielder who will need rest aswell as any injuries we could incur. i think we need another striker but keane might get a midfielder who can attack (and hopefully can play the ball and create space and passing options rather than leaving the defence to punt for targets) this team needs to play more on the ground to show all that Ipswich have a good looking team (fit and strong aswell), our wings look strong (civelli coming fit aswell) a right back could free up more winger options. Centre halfs look solid (Delaney back soon) so i am betting on two signings, a full-back and definately a central midfielder hopefully an attacking playmaker but i dont think experienced pros are a must maybe more youth and hunger because we have an experienced spine to our squad but good quality players is a must! if Keane gets these two signings it could determine the shape of the rest of the season and quality will do the trick for us. COYB

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