Town have been unable to complete the loan signing of Brighton centre-half Connor Goldson before the closure of the summer transfer window, a move which appeared almost certain to go ahead this morning until the Seagulls’ deal to sign Club Brugge defender Stefano Denswil collapsed.

Brighton have been unable to recruit another centre-half before the 11pm deadline, which would have seen the Seagulls allow Goldson to join Town for the season.

TWTD understands Goldson, who was also interesting Sheffield United and a number of other Championship sides, travelled to Suffolk last night and, as reported earlier, underwent a medical at Playford Road this morning with the clubs having agreed terms on a deal which would have seen the Blues pay a very significant proportion of the former Shrewsbury defender’s wage.

The framework of the proposed deal was agreed a fortnight ago when TWTD first reported that Town had made an approach for the one-time Cheltenham loanee, however, with Albion unwilling to confirm until they had signed another central defender.

A previous Brighton move for a defender broke down prior to Club Brugge calling off Denswil’s switch with that deal all but done - the Dutchman had undergone a medical and terms had been agreed - after the Belgian side discovered another of their players, Frenchman Benoît Poulain, would be unavailable for longer than had previously been anticipated due to an injury.

With the Goldson loan deal thrown into doubt, the Blues looked at other central defensive options including Derby’s Jason Shackell, although Town had concerns regarding the former Canary’s fitness. The 33-year-old has played only one game this season following back surgery towards the end of 2016/17.

The Blues had also shown interest in Nottingham Forest’s Jack Hobbs, as was reported over the weekend, but the East Midlanders were unwilling to allow the 29-year-old to move on loan.

With the Goldson deal looking less likely to be completed and having been unable to progress moves for other central defensive options, the Blues made a late afternoon approach for Callum Connolly, a player we understand Town have been eyeing for 18 months and who was a target last summer.

Although primarily a right-back rather than a centre-half, Connolly, who has been signed on a season-long loan, is viewed as giving Town additional defensive strength in depth with Jordan Spence and Dominic Iorfa - both also chiefly right-backs - among the options to play at centre-half during the current central defensive injury crisis which sees skipper Luke Chambers, Tommy Smith and Adam Webster all sidelined.

While Town will not be able to sign a player currently with a club after this evening’s 11pm deadline, they could still recruit someone who is out of contract if manager Mick McCarthy believes he requires further defensive cover until one or more of his senior centre-halves have made their return with Chambers likely to be the first to get back to action.

After the Blues skipper suffered his ankle injury at Millwall, the expectation was that he might be back a couple of weeks after the international break.

Meanwhile, serial Town loanee Jonny Williams joined Sunderland from Crystal Palace on a season-long lan just before the 11pm deadline.

Photo: Action Images

dukey44 added 13:04 - Sep 1 We've had months to sort the position so why did the club leave it until the last day to try and sign someone? Typical Ipswich now a days?
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BobbyBell added 13:15 - Sep 1 We must play Wolfenden now. He has ability and needs to gain experience. I'd rather see him get a few games and see how he shapes up. He could be a gem and our recent record of promising youngsters is to let other clubs have them before we've even seen what we've got. Jack Marriot is banging goals in now but we hardly used him
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dukey44 added 13:24 - Sep 1 Bobbeybell there's a few players that don't make it at Town but go on to play really well for other clubs! We are really good at doing that!
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baxter7 added 13:33 - Sep 1 We should change our name to the cilla club surprise surprise we never got our man like we always dont
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Surco72 added 13:43 - Sep 1 Yes its Brightons fault for not letting their player go before they got a replacement , now why don't we think of that !!! Summer to replace our highest paid centre back in Berra and we failed to sign someone , no money spent same to strengthen in this area when everyone can see we are weak . Money spent this summer on replacing Murphy and Pitman took us a whole season to replace Murphy , so should have another senior CB in by this time next year

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eMeM added 13:53 - Sep 1 Why did McCarthy allowed to release three guys and not sign even one real CB. How can anyone defend his mismanagement is beyond my understanding capabilities. Don't forget we still didn't replace Murphy. We don't have big striker which he desperately needs for long ball tactics. There is no plan for future. Cresswell was the last sale to be replaced by quality player. All other sales were wrong and shouldn't ever be done if club wants to get into Premier League. Even some supporters on this website show lack of ambition. They are happy with Ipswich Town falling into football league obscurity.

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peteswindon added 14:04 - Sep 1 Stupid comments from o called fans about how much time do we need, we cant sign someone who's parent club won't let go. At least this time we had a back up plan. Ok not ideal but better then nothing.
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gosblue added 14:05 - Sep 1 Here's a novel idea! Why don't we do a Brighton and hang onto our players until we have a replacement?
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BlueandTruesince82 added 14:41 - Sep 1 We have Chambo, bullet proof, played almost every min of every game last year, Smith who has been rock solid and Webster who despite what some may claim is not yet in a position to be called injury prone. Yes he been unlucky since joining us but played regularly at pompey and on loan at Aldershot before breaking in. Plus a RWB that can play CB if needed and Left back who can do the same and a promising youngster comming through. That's 5 players to cover the CB positions so more than enough. Most of (despite what we may claim now) probably agree with that as the poll ref letting Taylor go was overwhelmingly in agreement. As previously stated an injury crisis that's has ruled out an entire potential first team can not be legislated for. In terms of this transfer itself. The bloke was here, having a medical as was Brightons guy. At the point I would think all parties felt it was a done deal so any other Irons in the fire are naturally at that point extinguished. When the move broke down instead of throwing their hands up the club turned to other targets as stated last night and when they were still frustrated the club thought out of the box to a sign a player that allows 6ft 4 Iofra to move inside. Now having said all that an additional CB would never go a miss but had we signed one at the expense of one of the attacking players we have added many of you would be spitting feathers. I really don't see how the club could have done much more without inventing a time machine.

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Trojan added 14:44 - Sep 1 Well said Bluesince84, an absolute joke !!
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BlueandTruesince82 added 14:44 - Sep 1 It's 6! Not 5. 6 players who could play CB would normally be deemed plenty of cover
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runningout added 15:04 - Sep 1 The doom merchants are the realists. Last season wasn't an age away, and our position in that league wasn't made up. Fingers crossed our lack of fit and capable CBS wont haunt us
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dirtydingusmagee added 15:24 - Sep 1 Ok Brighton didn't release the player, that's fair enough.But yet again we wait till its too late to make a crucial signing, the window didn't didn't open and close in one day, its disappointing and frustrating for the supporters when this happens year after year, the club dosn't seem to learn from past mistakes .
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cat added 15:52 - Sep 1 B+T82 Cover for who?? You could bring Chambers and Smith back in next week fully fit and we are still defensively weak, they just ain't no good. Time will tell obviously, let's hope we score more goals than we concede, cause if the goals dry up, we are in trouble, even with the mighty "king Bart" between the sticks. No Berra replacement at the start of the season is where the fundamental problem lies, not the injuries or the last minute transfer let downs.

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Len_Brennan added 16:33 - Sep 1 Blueandtruesince82 : You make a fair and well reasoned argument above, and just as importantly you don't look to insult or label your fellow supporters while doing it. That being said, there are a couple of areas where I have to disagree with you. Saying that we have 5 or 6 players to cover the CB positions, so that's more than enough, is not really accurate. The fact that they could play CB is not the same as having experienced CBs actually playing, or even just having one established CB playing. Mick himself acknowledged that while Spence and Knudsen worked against Brentford (and both were very good to be fair), that would not be the case against better sides and/or sides with bigger, more physical centre forwards, who know how to create space, push their markers around and get fouls. Would Joe Garner fancy his chances if playing against a newbie CB partnership of Spence/Knudsen I wonder? Also, if you are going to say that it is too early to be in a position to call Webster injury prone, and I agree, it's also too early to suggest that we have more than enough full backs who can cover in the middle. We have very little game time on which to judge if they are good enough in that position, especially without an experienced leader beside them to get us results over the coming months. I really hope they do, I guess time will tell. Luke Chambers did his best at RB and played pretty well in some games, but his limitations in playing out of position were often exposed when up against the better sides. I fear for our defence in the coming weeks, and also fear that Mick will go back to playing a more defence minded midfield in order to compensate & offer protection because of it. While I agree that we are desperately unlucky with the injuries to our 3 senior centre halves, we have been aware of their unavailability (particularly 2 of them) for quite a long time. Surely it didn't have to come to 10pm+ on deadline day to bring someone in. I was only 50/50 on Taylor if I'm honest, but I did expect Mick to have 2 players for every position, as he has said himself on numerous occasions. He had 2 RBs, 2 LBs, but only 3 CBs for some reason. Unlucky yes, but it shouldn't have come down to the wire with no fit CB for the last few weeks and possibly 2 months to come. I really hope your suggestion of there being only an either/or when it came to bringing in Waghorn or another defender has no merit, or we really are in trouble. Given his reported fee of only £300k, surely another CB could have been brought in, if the club had wanted to. I think you're right about Iorfa. He wants to be a CB and he has the physique. Knusden looks better in the middle than he ever did at LB and the lad Connolly sounds like a real talent with potential, so hopefully it will work out for us. I just wish I didn't feel like we've unnecessarily put all the good work in the league over the last month in jeopardy and could be kicking ourselves by November.

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BlueandTruesince82 added 16:51 - Sep 1 Cat, the question of Chamno and Smith being good enough is an entirely different point. I agree it is debatable but I'm open minded there. Smith puts his body on the line and we were all over Chamno finally getting back to CB last year. Perhaps he needs to get the RB ring rust out, but I agree not the surest partnership but we have a budget we wanted and needed attacking players which we got so to beat the club for not signing defenders the rather moving the goal posts isn't it? The pot is not bottomless. Les I didn't even include Spence in my numbers. Iorfa 6ft 4 and has played CB, Knudsen. Loves defending a CB in the making, I think Mick always fancied that. The Wolf, young but cover for a couple of games if needed plus 3 recognised CBS. If you add Spence and I wouldn't that's 7 players. 6 of which have some (if not lots) of experience in that position. Small clubs need versatile players that can play multiple positions. It makes a huge difference. The profile we needed in this instance was experience, available, able to come in and hit the ground running somewhat and be ok with the fact that you may be bench warming when the others come back. I don't think there are to many of them around

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runningout added 17:13 - Sep 1 We all know really it's not the end of the world, just seems close.
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dirtydingusmagee added 17:14 - Sep 1 well we didn't get our man , and moaning aint gonna alter that. Hope it dosnt come back to haunt us. Now its down to waiting for someone to say ''I'm free'' .January will come round and the old '' not easy to get players in January '' will be spouted again. I think its time the transfer window was scrapped.All it really achieves is inflated valuations ,its a pain in the ####

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gosblue added 17:40 - Sep 1 The lads covering at the back have done a great job under the circumstances. However, we still have the same old problem of not being able to prevent crosses coming into the box. So a good, tall, chiselled from granite, old fashioned centre-back is a must, even when our 3 CBs are fit and well.
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cat added 17:42 - Sep 1 B&T - you make perfect sense, as per!. The problem I'm highlighting is the standard of our defence, with Webster's short term future looking grim, there's no real quality or leader in there. Whether that's down to lack of finance, bad luck, or whatever, it don't count for 'jack' now. The point is imo - defensively we are weak and I think that will prove costly
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BlueandTruesince82 added 18:21 - Sep 1 It will cat, but I feel we have enough for my predicted mid table finish. But we do have a bedrock of exciting players and youth comming through. Let's face it none of expect a real run at the play offs this year but next season if the squad is added to one again we could have a shot and that may well be without Mick. In a few seasons we may look back and feel Mick steered us through lean times on a shoestring. It's taken a while to get the excitement right but we must all agree we have moved for Ipswich type players this year and a full straight we are probably going to give most teams a game. Compared to 4 months ago that's still a huge change in the wind

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RRanger added 19:09 - Sep 1 Moan, moan , moan ,moan ,moan. Of course as a lot of you on here know, getting a good centre back on loan in the transfer window is as easy as going to Tescos. Just buy one off the shelf! Its obviously so easy.
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