Bristol City boss Gary Johnson is redoubling his efforts to bring in at least one defender ahead of this month's deadline for loan signings.

There are unlikely to be any new faces before tomorrow's Coca-Cola Championship clash with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, but Johnson admits he needs to bolster his injury-hit squad sooner rather than later.

City's players are still reeling from Saturday's shock 5-2 home defeat at the hands of Doncaster and the manager is working overtime to recruit a centre-back and a left-back to shore up a creaking defence and stave off a potential relegation battle.

Conceding his players had been "all over the place" and the team "very poor", Johnson revealed the lengths he has already gone to in his search for much-needed defensive cover.

He said: "We've made some enquiries and spoken to quite a few clubs about players and we are now waiting for them to come back to us. We definitely need a big centre-half and we could probably do with a left-back as well.

"There are a few irons in the fire and we are trying hard, but it is not always that easy. First of all, you need the right player to be available and then they have to want to come."

Given that Jamie McCombe is ruled out for the remainder of the season and Jamie McAllister is still to fully recover from a calf strain, Johnson is desperate to increase his options and relieve the pressure on a defence which appeared wide open against Doncaster.

Every bit as embarrassing as the 6-0 home defeat meted out by Cardiff in January, this latest setback once again raises the prospect of City being drawn into a protracted relegation battle.

Although a section of City fans have turned against the manager, he still has the backing of chairman Steve Lansdown and will now be charged with the task of lifting his players and plotting a recovery ahead of tomorrow night's trip to south London.

He said: "I'm not worried. If the players saw that I was worried, then the confidence would drain out of them. Things fluctuate and that's why I'm not going to talk about promotion or relegation.

"It was only a week ago or so that we were very happy with our performances and things like this can happen in football. We seem either to be really good or really bad and that's something we have to look at.

"Unless we get a couple of good results now, we are looking at a situation where we are not going to be anywhere near the play-offs during March."

Johnson ordered his players in for extra training yesterday and has promised to work them hard in an attempt to iron out the problems which handed Doncaster victory on a plate.

He said: "These players don't ever go out to let down me, the supporters or the club, but they were poor and too many things went wrong on the day. We didn't get close enough to them and we missed our tackles all over the pitch.

"Defensively and as a team we were all over the place and people don't want to hear me talking at this moment in time. Actions speak louder than words and it's going to take an awful lot of action on the training pitch to put things right.

"I called them in on Sunday, because we have to show them where we think they went wrong. No matter what formation you play, it is still eleven versus eleven and you have to win your individual battles. We lost out as individuals and as a team and there will now be a lot of aggressive coaching.."

City face three away games against fellow strugglers Palace, Reading and Plymouth in the next eight days and Johnson warned: "We are going to have to adopt a very strong mentality from here on in. The lads are going to be really disappointed with that performance and turning it around is more of a mental thing than anything else.

"We have another game coming up quickly and we will see which players are up for it and which are not. We didn't have too many leaders out there against Doncaster and we need our leaders to stand up."