Pompey boss seeking emergency loan recruits

From tomorrow, Football League clubs will be allowed to recruit loan players – eight days after the transfer window closed.

It’s a route which brought the likes of Scott Allan, Karim Rekik and Chris Maguire to Fratton Park under Appleton last season.

The Blues boss has stated he wants a defender and striker, although has already used four of his loan slots up.

With a maximum of five permitted in a match-day squad, that remains a consideration.

The clash at Crawley takes place on Sunday, meaning Appleton has until noon tomorrow to register any potential arrival to be able to feature.

Now the hunt is on.

He said: ‘If we have to do something very quickly with a loan then we will have to.

‘Then we are back to the same scenario we have been for the last four games where we will probably have another three or four debuts – and that has been the problem.

‘At the end of the day, you are not going to get cohesion or continuity if in every single game you have to give two or three players a debut.

‘We continue to do a lot of work that really we shouldn’t be having to but it is the situation we are in.

‘These are difficult times, there’s going to be a lot of slog and a lot of hard work.

‘But we will definitely give it our best shot and try to get a best team to put out on Sunday.’