Bristol City boss Derek McInnes will give the players at his disposal an opportunity to do the business before he enters the loan market.
McInnes has been on the lookout for a dominant right-sided centre-back since the end of last season and may now have to widen his search for defensive cover after losing left-back Greg Cunningham to long-term injury.
But no further recruitment is planned ahead of tomorrow's npower Championship clash against Watford and McInnes insists those selected to start at Vicarage Road will be given a fair crack of the whip.
If City continue to pick up points in games against Leeds and Leicester prior to the next two-week break for international matches, the Scot will stay his hand in the loan transfer market. McInnes said: "We are still looking to get a defender in to help with numbers and we are working hard behind the scenes to get good players in, who can improve us.
"But results and performances will determine just how active we are (in the transfer market). We will look to within the squad for Saturday's game and, hopefully, we have players here who can get us results.
"The squad is strong and we knew it would have to be to cope with situations like the one we are in at the minute. We will utilise the squad as much as we can."
A fringe player earlier in the season, James Wilson has forced his way back into the centre of City's defence, while the absence of Cunningham means full-backs Mark Wilson and Joe Bryan will come into consideration this weekend.
Like Cunningham, key midfielder Cole Skuse will be ruled out for a number of weeks after sustaining a serious ankle injury during Tuesday's 2-1 victory at Peterborough.
"The news on Cole Skuse is slightly better and the bleeding has stopped. He has had a couple of uncomfortable days, but the ankle has settled down a bit and, hopefully, it will not be as bad as we first feared.
"He will be out for the next couple of games anyway."
"We are a lot more concerned about Greg Cunningham's injury. Although we are confident he has not fractured a bone, we cannot rule that out yet and he will have a scan on Friday.
"He has severe ligament damage and that is bad enough but, hopefully, there is no fracture."
City head to Watford in search of back-to-back away wins with McInnes hinting he may adopt a more attacking game-plan at Vicarage Road.
Recalling his team selection at Peterborough – winger Albert Adomah was replaced by Marvin Elliott as City sought to keep things tight – McInnes said: "If you don't win the game, you open yourself up for criticism with people saying you have picked the wrong team.
"No one played better than Albert Adomah last week, but he understood we picked a team to try to get a result. I was not entirely pleased with our first-half performance and I would have liked us to move the ball better and be sharper.
"Albert was always in my head to play a big part in the game."
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