Mark Robins spoke of his delight, as he was able capture the signing of Ephron Mason-Clark on Deadline Day.
The attacker joins from Peterborough United in the summer, having returned back to Posh on loan for the remainder of this season.
Robins also paid tribute to the departing Kyle McFadzean, whilst also looking ahead to this weekend’s trip to Carrow Road to face Norwich City.
The signing of Ephron Mason-Clark…
“He’s a really good player. But, first and foremost, it's dissapointing we couldn’t get him in and have him now because we needed players and quality in and we’re probably a little bit light.
“On the other side of things, I try and guide everybody to an understanding of where we’re at and it’s a reality check. We weren’t able to get him in now, but for the summer he will come in and he’s a really good lad with a lot of ability and we can work with him and make him better. It would have been brilliant to have him now but unfortunately that couldn’t happen, so we just have to take that on the chin and wait until the summer.
“We’re a little bit light in numbers and quality and we could have done with a few more players in. I can’t help looking around and seeing all our competitors have strengthened and that makes them stronger and different, and we are aiming to cement a place in the play offs as well, but those two things have to go together.
“We always do things on an incremental basis, and we’ve changed things around and we spent a few quid on Victor Torp as well.
“The money is going into these players, and we have to do it on an incremental basis, and we have to keep costs low, so the operating costs have to be kept at a level where we don’t get in trouble financially that’s just where we’re at.
“We are operating on a thin squad and when you get an injury like, Ben Sheaf, it has an impact, so we have to hope we can keep everyone fit to maintain a challenge this season, But also keeping an eye on what we need to do in the summer to move it forward again.”
Waiting for him to join in the summer…
“In the end, I was told the deal was going ahead and then things changed and then it was going ahead again, and things changed, but that’s how it ended up.
“We looked at Ephron for a while and he came, and we’ve spoken with him, and he is a really good lad who is enjoying a decent spell at the moment and like I say the disappointment is we couldn’t get him now and see him in a Sky Blue shirt, but we will wait until the summer, there was no choice about that in the end.
“We’ve got what we have, and we will work with a really good talented group of players, albeit a few light in my opinion, to try and achieve what we want to achieve for the rest of the season.”
Kyle McFadzean’s departure…
“Fadz came in five years ago and played a significant part in our evolving club and captained the side on numerous occasions and played brilliantly for us.
“He led by example and was great to have in the dressing room and we will miss his presence.
“He’s been through the mill over the last few months, losing his Mum and one thing or another and that coincided unfortunately with him losing his place in the side and moving on, but he goes with everyone’s best wishes.
“He has everyone’s respect and I hope we keep in touch over the years.”
Utilizing the Under-21s…
“We will have to use the young players from the academy if we need to do that. We did that at the start of the season, and we will go to that if we need to.
“I will look at that in the coming days to sort of address one or two but if we need any more players in and I think it might be prudent to do that so that they’re training with us and gaining that experience.”
Coming up against Norwich this weekend…
“We’re going to Norwich where we’ve been poor in the last few games there and thankfully the majority of that group didn’t experience last season, because it wasn’t great.
"It was a really good performance against them earlier this season, in the home game, something we haven’t been able to do against them in recent seasons.
“We’re different, they’re different and we’re in a really good run of form anyway and we want to try and keep that up if we possibly can do.
“We have to attack the games like we always do, and we have to go there with the mindset of attacking the game like we always do.
“If you can get something tomorrow, it builds the confidence into Tuesday evening’s game against Sheffield Wednesday and to try and get through into the next round.”
Update on Ben Sheaf…
“He gets a scan today and we will know a little bit more then.
“Unfortunately, he’s had to wait a few days until we could get him on the scanner, so he will be on that machine later today.
“I will know this evening, so when we speak tomorrow after the game, we will be able to provide more information then.”