Manager Alan Knill is determined Scunthorpe United will use this week's break from League One action to work on improving their diabolical defensive record.

And he will start by snapping up full-back Jamie Reckord on loan from Wolves, the Telegraph can reveal.

The Iron have another free afternoon in the fixture calendar on Saturday because scheduled opponents Sheffield United are still involved in the FA Cup.

For their beleaguered boss it comes at exactly the right time, ahead of a month which could potentially prove season-defining when it comes to their hopes of avoiding a second successive relegation.

Knill was fuming at the way United gifted Sheffield Wednesday three goals – the first of which came with the game less than 40 seconds old – during the Owls' routine win at Glanford Park on Tuesday night.

And the arrival of Wolves teenager Reckord, expected to be confirmed in the next 48 hours, is the first of what Knill would like to be several new recruits before the transfer window closes on Tuesday.

The 19-year-old left-back, who is highly-rated by the Premier League club, is understood to have been a long-term target for the Iron during January.

He spent the second half of last season on loan at League Two side Northampton Town.

"I'd like to see new faces and lots of them," said the Iron boss after his side's Owls howler.

"But there'll be no permanent deals, it will just be loans I would have thought.

"We've given some names to the board and they're being discussed."

Scunthorpe start February with a home game against Walsall, the side directly above them in the table, and then face Yeovil Town and Rochdale, two teams currently in the bottom four, but looking to impress new managers.

To get positive results from those matches, the Iron need a drastic upturn in fortunes given they have won just once in their last 13 league outings.

And though he will use the last few days of the transfer window to supplement a particularly desperate need for defensive reinforcements, the Iron chief says those currently charged with keeping the ball out of the net must also do better.

"It doesn't matter how many goals you score at one end if you can't keep them out at your end," added Knill, whose side have badly missed Shane Duffy since his loan spell with the Iron was ended by Everton.

"Before Tuesday night, we'd been okay, though there are obviously some things you want to try to sort out.

"We have to be a lot better for the remainder of the season. It's a big month next month and hopefully we can improve.

"But we only have ourselves to blame.

"I say the same thing every week, more or less. The goals we concede are pretty awful.

"It was exactly the same on Saturday (a 1-1 draw against Stevenage, in which the visitors equalised six minutes from time).

"We should have had three points from that one yet there it is again, in the middle of the park we miss a tackle, we don't stop the cross and we don't defend the far post.

"They're not great goals we're conceding, they're pretty poor and they have been since day one."