Chris Lakey Glenn Roeder has promised to deliver at least two new players - and possibly as many as four - before the transfer window closes at midnight tomorrow.

Chris Lakey

Glenn Roeder has promised to deliver at least two new players - and possibly as many as four - before the transfer window closes at midnight tomorrow.

The Canaries boss took his threadbare squad up to 16th in the Championship table after a hard-fought 1-0 win at Southampton last night which stretched their unbeaten run in the league to 10 games.

But it's tight at the bottom, with the Canaries still just five points clear of the drop zone, and Roeder is keen to shore up his squad as the final third of the season approaches.

“We will have a few new signings in by Thursday,” said Roeder, whose side edged home courtesy of on-loan Ched Evans' fourth goal for the club.

“I am very confident about being able to announce two on Thursday and I'd like to think there would be at least one more - definitely two, stroke three or four maybe.”

Whether or not one of those is Scunthorpe striker Martin Paterson, Roeder wouldn't say. Scunthorpe reportedly knocked back an £850,000 bid for Paterson yesterday, although Iron chairman Steve Wharton insisted no bid had been received.

“Martin is not for sale,” he said. “We do not want to sell our leading scorer.”

Roeder watched Paterson score twice in a 3-2 defeat at Ipswich in December before City's evening kick-off at Colchester, but declined to expand on yesterday's developments.

“I don't like talking about other clubs' players, but he is a player that has done particularly well since he left Stoke and he has gone to Scunthorpe,” said Roeder.

“But I don't like other managers talking about my players and I think it would be wrong talking about Martin Paterson while he is a Scunthorpe player - but I have been impressed by what he has done so far in the Championship.”

Roeder's side have been goal shy in recent matches and needed an Evans goal just before half-time at St Mary's last night to secure three valuable points.

Saints hit the woodwork three times while Stern John blazed a second-half penalty way wide of David Marshall's goal.

And while Roeder admitted City rode their luck, he was delighted with his team's fighting spirit.

“That is what I have come to expect over the last few months,” he said. “We have improved significantly.

“Apart from two very, very disappointing performances against Bury for which we hold our hands up and make no excuses for - other than that in the league we have been terrific.

“I said to the lads afterwards that because we are such honest people we know we weren;'t at our best tonight and it is important to me that I am working with honest players because that is the only way to move forward, by being honest when you haven't played your best.

“They get a pat on the back tonight for how hard they dug in.

“We rode our luck a little bit at times. Obviously you expect penalties to be scored so we were happy to see that one sail over the crossbar by such a wide margin.

“It was a case of the longer the game went on Southampton had nothing to lose and threw the kitchen sink at us. No one can accuse of not keeping going under severe pressure.”

Southampton caretaker boss Jason Dodd claimed Norwich should have been reduced to 10 men as his side slumped to their 12th defeat of the season.

Dodd claimed Gary Doherty should have been sent off for handball in the incident that led to Saints missed second half spot-kick.

“You never like to see a player sent off but when you break the rules by handling a ball in the area and stopping someone scoring a goal then surely that is a sending-off offence,” he said.

“I felt the referee was weak and he should have sent the player off.”

Dodd was pleased with his side's battling performance and reckons if they had the rub of the green they would have won the game.

The former Saints defender said: “We set off with an attacking formation and I was pleased with the way the players dealt with the new system.

“We got into them from the start and created a lot of chances but unfortunately we couldn't take them.”