IPSWICH Town manager Paul Jewell has not ruled out making signings before the ‘emergency’ loan window closes on Thursday.

The Blues are now just four points above the relegation zone, their 3-2 defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday making it four straight league defeats.

Danny Collins was outstanding in the heart of defence – and he also scored both Town goals – but he can only play for five more games before having to return to parent club Stoke City.

Ipswich have now conceded 10 goals in their last three games. And with Ibrahima Sonko (hamstring) and Damien Delaney (foot) both injured, Jewell could try and bring in reinforcements ahead of the busy Christmas schedule.

“I think we’re always looking to improve – whether that’s before Thursday or in January,” said the Blues boss.

“We’re always making enquiries to see if we can get people and improve our squad.”

Championship teams can field a maximum of five domestic loan players in their matchday squad. At present they have four in David Stockdale, Collins, Reece Wabara and Keith Andrews, with Daryl Murphy not counting due to the fact he plays north of the border with Celtic. Meanwhile, Jewell insisted that – despite defensive errors costing his team, once again – he saw an overall improvement in performance.

He said: “I wouldn’t say today was a similar sort of performance to Millwall or Doncaster. I thought we did quite well, but we haven’t got that belief to see games out when the crowd are baying for blood.

“We encouraged the crowd by playing those little balls in the middle of the park that set us on the back foot. Two or three times we played square balls when we were in complete control and all of a sudden we turn the ball over to the opposition.

“It was a bit of a sickener because I thought we matched them all over the place. It doesn’t matter which way you dress it up though, we keep conceding goals. It’s not just the goalkeeper and the back four, it’s a whole team thing.”

Six-goal midfielder Andrews missed Saturday’s game due to the fact he broke his nose while away on international duty with the Republic of Ireland.

“He had an operation on Thursday morning and hopefully will be back next week,” said Jewell.