Phil Parkinson today surveyed City’s dwindling band of brothers and admitted: It’s impossible to carry on like this.

Zavon Hines and James Meredith joined long-term casualties Luke Oliver, Andrew Davies and Kyel Reid on the Valley Parade sidelines after the dramatic FA Cup win over Northampton.

Parkinson discussed the urgent need for reinforcements with the board yesterday and insisted the team simply could not cope on their current limited numbers.

He said: “It’s impossible for the same players to keep going Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday. It will not happen.

“I’m experienced enough to know that. I’ve managed for quite a few years now and I’ve played a long time before that.

“It’s great at the moment and everybody’s enjoying it. You see the queues for the Arsenal tickets.

“But I do need to stress that maybe before this loan deadline closes, we get in a couple more players. The two we’ve brought in so far, Craig (Forsyth) and John (Egan) have been fantastic but we probably need to add to that now.

“There’s a good group of lads here and I enjoy working with them. I just want to give us every chance to keep this momentum going.

“We’ll see how the injuries are but we can’t afford to hit the wall.”

After four extra-times, City have arguably played more minutes than any other Football League team this season.

Parkinson was once again hailing a new cup hero after Carl McHugh’s last-gasp equaliser when his side were down to ten men forced the successful penalty shoot-out on Tuesday night.

He added: “Carl really typifies what this group of players are all about.

“I thought he had a tough time against big Clive Platt in the first half. We spoke to him and pointed out that he’s not 6ft 4in so he’s not going to outmuscle him.

“Carl (pictured heading the extra-time equaliser) had to play with more intelligence and I felt he did that from then on.

“What a great example that is. If you are having a difficult night, find a solution, come through with your resilience and character and end up the hero.

“I can remember myself being a player at half-time when you’ve had a poor game and people are getting on at you. You have to turn it round and he was outstanding.

“You can go back in every cup game and there’s a different unsung hero. It’s great to have that in the squad.

“Stephen Darby did it against Burton, Garry Thompson at Watford and Dukey (Matt Duke) made the last-ditch saves at Wigan.

“Nahki got the headlines on Saturday for his goals and now it’s Carl’s turn. Each time it’s somebody else who gets the plaudits.”