Despite adding five new players to their squad in the January transfer window, Bristol City fans may ultimately have been left feeling a little deflated by the sum total of the club's activity.

Wigan Athletic goalkeeper Richard O'Donnell and Wolves left-back Scott Golbourne joined on permanent transfers, while there were loan deals for Bournemouth forward Lee Tomlin, and Ben Gladwin and Alex Pearce of QPR and Derby County respectively.

However, with the club currently embroiled in a relegation battle, the Robins' failure to secure further deals for long-term targets may come back to bite them come May.

Here, we've looked at THREE players that City should have brought to Ashton Gate on transfer deadline day......

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PRESS THE IMAGE BELOW TO SEE THE 3 PLAYERS!

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Bradley Dack

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It wasn't for lack of trying, but City failed to land one of their major long-term transfer targets during the winter window as Gillingham played hardball over their star man Bradley Dack.

After they had had a £1 million bid rejected for the attacking midfielder, John Pemberton's side doubled their offer late in the window but were still unable to prise Dack away. If they had stretched to one or two million pounds more, they may well ahve been successful.

Only one team in the Championship - MK Dons - have scored fewer goals than the Robins this season, and a creative outlet such as Dack would have gone a long way to solving that issue.

Dack can also contribute goals himself from midfield, as his form so far this season for Gillingham shows - the 22-year-old has scored 14 goals from 33 appearances.

 

Jay Emmanuel-Thomas

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With many of their fellow Championship strugglers signing a striker in January, City's unsuccessful attempts to bring in another frontman have to go down as the club's biggest failure of deadline day.

What will be more galling for Robins supporters is that one of those clubs, MK Dons, pulled off the loan signing of QPR striker Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, a former fans favourite at Ashton Gate.

The man known as JET scored 33 goals in 103 matches across two seasons for the club before joining QPR last summer, and his firepower could have been just what is needed to battle to safety.

What's more, the fact that he only left last summer means that the 25-year-old knows the club inside out, something which could prove just as valuable as on-pitch performance in the quest to avoid the drop.

 

Matt Smith

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Another former City player, Smith enjoyed a profitable three-month spell during the club's League One title-winning campaign last season whilst on loan from Championship side Fulham.

The former Oldham man hit 13 goals in just 20 appearances in all competitions for the Robins, and he also has increasing Championship pedigree, his six goals at the Cottagers whilst playing mainly as a substitute adding to 12 strikes for Leeds United in 2013-14.

A notable target for John Pemberton during the January transfer window, it was thought that any potential move for Smith hinged on Fulham keeping hold of key pair Moussa Dembele and Ross McCormack.

However, although the London club ended the window with Dembele and McCormack still in their squad, a deal for Smith never materialised, leaving City hung out to dry in their search to add more firepower to their Championship survival bid.