CITY remain on high alert to find support for Charlie Wyke after missing out on Kieffer Moore.

The target man stayed in the Championship as expected when he joined Barnsley for £750,000 from Ipswich.

The Bantams were among the clubs who had made an offer for a striker with 13 goals under his belt from a half-season loan at Rotherham.

But head of recruitment Greg Abbott insists finding another centre forward to share the workload with Wyke is still a crucial part of their transfer window.

He said: "Kieffer Moore was probably the most sought-after number nine outside of the Championship, along with Charlie. He's scored all the goals and contributed so much to Rotherham.

"All the top six clubs in our division were hunting for him – and clubs in the middle to the bottom end of the Championship were always going to be keeping a keen eye.

"We always knew that if one of them came in, the chances are you're going to lose out because the salaries in the Championship are bigger and so are the fees.

"Kieffer Moore was the first one on our list as a priority target to play alongside Charlie.

"If we needed to give Charlie a breather because of all the games played and the way we use him, we could have done that."

Wyke, who chairman Edin Rahic has stressed is not for sale, leads the way for City this season with 12 goals from 25 starts so far. He has started all but one of their league games since recovering from a thigh injury at the end of August.

Stuart McCall's side are heavily reliant on the former Carlisle man – and acutely aware of not flogging him to death with no obvious replacement available within the current squad.

Abbott said: "That's another situation we need to resolve. Somebody who can share the workload with Charlie as a number nine.

"We've plenty of other types who can play up front in terms of pace and can play off him or run in behind. But we haven't got a genuine number nine apart from Charlie."

On Wyke's workload, Abbott added: "Look at the Premier League, who are playing 36 games and have international breaks and squad rotation. We don't have that.

"We can rotate certain positions but with that one, Charlie is a pivotal member of the team. We have got to make sure we have back-up and support for him.

"There are situations like that in other areas where one or two are playing through niggling injuries. We'd like to nurse them a bit more and give them a rest if they need it.

"The key is to get everybody fit and we've not got that at the minute. We have to safeguard the players."