Steve Morison says Cardiff City are working as hard as any other team to bring a striker into the club before Thursday's transfer deadline passes.
The Bluebirds looked unthreatening once again against Luton Town, save for a long-range Romaine Sawyers strike to halve the deficit late on in the 2-1 home defeat.
It was a poor result and one which will be viewed as three points dropped, no doubt. For all of Cardiff's impressive play in the first two thirds of the pitch, they still look short of a Championship-quality forward when they get to within 20 yards of the opposition's goal.
READ MORE: Toothless Bluebirds attack made to pay as Freeman and Osho score to earn Hatters win
And when asked if the defeat accelerated the need for a striker before Thursday's 11pm deadline, a defiant Morison replied: "Yes. Do you think I'm not trying? It's not that I'm not making those decisions. There is not anyone in our remit at the minute that's available.
"Sam Surridge is not available. Liam Delap is someone we looked at, he picked Stoke over us and West Brom. Ellis Simms was someone we looked at but he picked Sunderland over us.
"We have been close. We just haven't got one. The words people going on about, we have been working our behinds off since April last year, hence why we have got the amount of players we have got in.
"Summer holiday... what was a summer holiday? Holidays were sitting up at 4am in the morning, talking to the board while I'm in America, trying to get a player through the door. To keep using the phrases people keep using about us in our hunt for a striker is a bit disrespectful, because we are working as hard as anyone in the Football League to bring someone in.
"If they do, then great, if not then we crack on because that is life."
While the manager claimed "nothing is close", he still believed he had time in he window to change that.
When asked if he was interested in signing any other players in other positions, he replied: "Only if someone went out we would have to be reactive and had to move then we would. Nothing is imminent, unless I turn my phone on and something we have been working on has gone through there is nothing coming in at the minute."
On the game itself, Morison said: "It was disappointing because we dominated the game from start to finish. "We gave a couple of chances away and they took them; the second one was offside but that's life.
"As a team we didn't finish our moments of good play off and they did. There are lots of ifs, buts and maybes but the only thing we know for sure is we lost the game."
READ NEXT
- Injured Cardiff City star Isaak Davies 'not quite right' as update given on Burnley transfer pursuit
