Important final week in window for Eustace

Saturday's defeat at Bristol City is becoming a familiar story.

Nobody is doubting the desire, the work-rate, the will to win, the playing through the pain barrier - but for the sixth time in nine matches, after six wins in a row before that, Rovers were on the wrong end of a scoreline that has eventually removed them from the top six.

For the second Saturday in a row, a wicked deflection beating a helpless Aynsley Pears consigned them to defeat.

John Eustace told me after the match that defender Owen Beck is basically running on empty, and with Harry Pickering still more than a month away from returning he had to change his system to a back three. Beck isn't the only one feeling the effects of both a busy schedule and an inability to rotate.

Four players were scanned for various knocks on Tuesday after the defeat by Coventry. All four played at Ashton Gate, Callum Brittain completing the whole match and continuing his excellent form in the process.

But with Scott Wharton, Hayden Carter, Harry Pickering, Sondre Tronstad, Todd Cantwell, Arnor Sigurdsson and Yuki Ohashi missing, the options for Eustace remain extremely limited.

The transfer window business is expected to ramp up nationwide over the next week. Eustace is in no doubt where his priorities lie.

Number one has to be a striker, number two is an attacking midfield player.

Rovers lack a cutting edge, and for all their good build-up play they are not working goalkeepers enough in games.

Eustace would also like another left-sided defender. If they could get one equally comfortable at centre-back, that would help.

It's certainly a case of quality wanted, not quantity. Players who might just have that X-factor to help them sneak in to fifth or sixth spot in a very congested table.

Frustration is growing among the fanbase regarding the wait for new faces to add to Dion Sanderson and Adam Forshaw's arrivals.

The high-profile winter-window registration errors of the past two years are still fresh in the mind.

Adding players to impact the starting XI can only help them in the long run.

It's over to the powers that be to provide their ambitious head coach with what he feels is needed to sustain an unlikely play-off push.