Hibs boss Jack Ross was frustrated at being unable to strengthen his attack following the closure of the transfer window.
Hibs hoped to bring in fresh recruits to bolster their ranks and were unfortunate with their late swoop for St Mirren's Jamie McGrath not going through on time.
Ross also missed out on former Rangers winger Barrie McKay who joined rivals Hearts and the manager revealed his disappointment at failure to add new faces.
Though he was pleased to keep hold of his top men Kevin Nisbet, Ryan Porteous and Martin Boyle.
And Raith Rovers' Dylan Tait did manage a last minute dash to Easter Road.
“I was consistent in the areas of the squad we needed to strengthen," Ross explained. "One area - middle to front - we weren’t able to do.
“We continually try to identify really good players to bring to the club. We tried to do that at the closure of the window.
"We weren’t able to do so, it’s disappointing and a little bit frustrating in that respect but I still have enormous faith in the group we have put together and they have shown why I have that trust in them with what they’ve produced over the last year and a half.
“There’s a little bit of frustration but I would say we have been really patient in our recruitment.
“It’s easy to sign players for the sake of it and add numbers to your squad but we continually work to ensure when we bring players in it’s to strengthen the group and I think we have recruited successfully in recent times.
“That’s shown with the number of sellable assets we have in the group and that’s changed remarkably over the last season and a half as well. That’s an indication of both our recruitment and identification of recruitment and we will continue to do that ahead of the January window”.
Specifically addressing McKay, Ross was hesitant to go into detail about their pursuit.
Though he hinted that an offer was put to the former Swansea man.
"We have tried to ascertain whether or not there’s a possibility of us recruiting players, there’s lots of dynamics come into that - a player’s appetite for the challenge, the financial aspect," Ross said while speaking on Sky Sports.
“There’s a lot of players we do that with before we put an offer in front of them.
“I’m reluctant to talk about individuals as I’d be here all afternoon talking about players we have been linked with or who suggestions were that they were on the brink of coming to the club when the truth often is that that’s not the case.”
