City’s promotion rivals will not make a better January capture than Kyel Reid or Andrew Davies.

Joint-chairman Julian Rhodes believes the return of the key duo from injury will trump any other League Two signings in next month’s transfer window.

Sides like Chesterfield and Port Vale are already making noises about recruiting and Fleetwood are likely to flex their financial muscle.

But whatever City decide to do, Rhodes feels they already have two aces up their sleeve.

“People talk about getting through to January but it’s more for me about getting through to the stage when our big players come back from injury,” he said.

“Look at the likes of Kyel Reid and Andrew Davies. If any of our promotion rivals signed players like that, you’d sit up and take notice.

“We’re all excited about them coming back in the team and hopefully they’ll both return before too long.

“Other teams are talking about recruiting but will they be bringing in the same quality? I doubt it.”

Rhodes revealed that City had not planned to delve too heavily into the loan market this season but were forced to revise their plans by an “unprecedented” run of serious injuries.

Blair Turgott and Curtis Good, signed just ahead of the loan deadline a fortnight ago, took the tally of temporary signings to five – including the luckless John Egan, who has had to return to Sunderland after breaking his leg.

Rhodes said: “We didn’t want to go into the loan market. We spent a lot of money assembling a squad in the summer that we thought was capable of getting promotion.

“Unfortunately the injuries we’ve had have been unprecedented. To lose two of your three centre halves in the same game, and then more injuries thereafter, is something nobody could have planned for.

“Loans quite often don’t work, some do. I’m more of a fan of a season-long loan or a loan from one transfer window to the next. But the situation meant we have to bring others in short term.

“Egan played remarkably well in the games he had here and was a big success. But then he suffered an horrendous injury.

“We’ll have to review it again next month and see where we are in the league. We’ve still got the deficit we need to address.”

But Rhodes is banking on the imminent return of Reid, with Davies possibly back by the end of next month, to provide the catalyst for the second half of the season.

“If you look back to the start, when Davies and Reid were available, we were averaging two points a game,” he said.

“If we do that again when they’re back, then we’ll get promoted because they are two massive players.

“I don’t think it’s any coincidence that James Hanson’s goals dried up for a while and it just happened to tie in with Kyel Reid getting injured.

“He is an out-and-out winger who whips balls into the box and big centre forwards like to get on the end of them. There isn’t any team in this division who wouldn’t want him.”