Blues boss Paul Jewell says the injuries to Paul Taylor and Michael Chopra have given Nathan Ellington a chance to finally make an impact at Town. The 31-year-old, who Jewell confirmed was targeted by Notts County and former side Bristol Rovers during the transfer window, made his first appearance since January as a half-time sub during Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Charlton.
Jewell says that Ellington, who joined Town on a free transfer last summer after leaving Watford, has never been entirely out of the picture despite a first season in which he made only three starts and 15 sub appearances without scoring.
"I’ve said before, while you’re here and you’re giving your best, you’ve always got an opportunity,” insisted the Blues boss. "His opportunities have been limited, he hasn’t been in the best of form confidence-wise in training.
"But in the last three weeks he’s seemed to have a spring in his step. His contract is up at the end of the year and I think he’s looked around and seen how difficult it is to get clubs.
"It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past, clubs are now cutting their cloth accordingly in a lot of areas and he needs start scoring some goals and playing some games. If that’s with us, great, if it’s somewhere else, he needs to do that for himself.”
TWTD revealed earlier in the month that Ellington was interesting League One Notts County before the window closed but Jewell says he was unwilling to allow the striker join them on trial: "There were a couple of clubs interested in him, Notts County and Bristol Rovers. Notts County wanted him on trial, but I’m not going to do that.
"He’s part of our squad, not a part-time player, he doesn’t need to go anywhere on trial and at the moment he’s not going anywhere because he’s part of our squad.”
Meanwhile, Jewell says Lee Martin's agent held further contract talks with the club recently: "I think Simon Clegg met his agent last week.”
Referring to Town's struggles and more recent speculation regarding his own future, he added: "I think contract talks are on hold!”