Town boss Kieran McKenna says striker Kayden Jackson has impressed him on various levels since he has come to the club and believes the former Accrington man and Joe Pigott, who has been unable to secure a regular place in the team since joining the club after leaving AFC Wimbledon in the summer, will both have a part to play in the remaining months of the season.
Jackson, 27, joined the club in the close season ahead of 2018/19 under Paul Hurst’s management and was a regular under the ex-Shrewsbury boss.
However, he fell out of favour during Paul Lambert’s time in charge and was relegated to training with the U23s, and featured only fleetingly after Paul Cook took over in March last year.
But the pacy frontman appeared from the bench at Gillingham and in the home game with Accrington, and was handed his first start since April at Wimbledon on Tuesday when he played a significant part in Wes Burns’s first goal.
"I was very clear when I came in that it was a clean slate for everyone,” McKenna said. "I wasn’t so interested in what had gone on with previous managers or who had played or who hadn’t and I have to say Kayden’s impressed me from the first day.
"Really humble, hungry lad, because he hasn’t really featured much at all on meeting him you could expect on meeting him that he might be a little bit disillusioned with the situation, but not at all. He made it clear to me he just wants to contribute to the team wherever he can.
"He wants to be here and just wants to be part of a good Ipswich Town team and a good Ipswich Town squad.
"He impressed me with his attitude straight off the bat and I think he has different qualities to offer us as a player.
"Obviously his ability to stretch defences, his speed and willingness to run in behind, his physical capacity is at a really outstanding level and he’s able to stretch the game and stretch defences.
"It’s important to have that in the squad. We have other forwards with different qualities, forwards who are better maybe with the backs to goal and holding the ball up and giving different threats.
"We have a lot of players who are good between the lines, who like the ball to feet and who are able to play in tight spaces around the midfield, so it’s important in the balance of a squad to have people who can stretch a defence, who can pin and occupy defenders, give other people space to play. And on top of that, as I say, his work-rate off the ball is really outstanding.
"We think he’s got a part to play in the squad for the rest of the season. I’ve been impressed with him on different levels.
"I thought coming into the team the other night after so long out, he did a good job for the team. He played a big part in the first half in terms of stretching and occupying defenders which enabled us to have really good control in the game.
"We had almost no threat on our goal at all in the first half. Kayden was a part of that. I think he does a lot of work that probably doesn’t get noticed on camera because of the type of player he is.
"Obviously, first game for him, he’s got areas to improve and we’ll be working on that with him but good to see him get his first start in a little while and make a positive contribution to the goal, a positive contribution to the win and we think he can be an important member of the squad.”
Pigott, 28, has made only five league starts and eight sub appearances since signing in the summer and starting the opening game as the central striker.
"I’ve had a few chats with Joe,” McKenna continued. "To be honest, he’s been training well. I said to him that I think he can count himself unlucky in terms of the minutes he’s played.
"But we’re blessed in that department at the moment. We have a number of good strikers, all with different qualities.
"Obviously Macauley [Bonne] has been having and is having a really good season and contributes a lot to the team.
"James [Norwood] has come into the team in the recent run and has been scoring goals, and Joe has had to be a little bit patient.
"We know what qualities he can bring. He’s got different qualities to the other forwards, he’s proven that at this level he can score goals. He can also bring other things to the team in terms of his hold-up play and his link play and his back to goal play is at a really good level.
"It’s difficult to manage a lot of options but with where we are in the season, with the time left in the season, we’re happy to carry those numbers, have a lot of options.
"We feel like over the course of the run of games, people can have a part to play and contribute at different times and Joe’s definitely one who can contribute between now and the end of the season.”
McKenna is pleased that he has been able to switch around his personnel in recent matches but while still winning matches.
"That’s massive for us,” he said. "Obviously, for the couple of games that we had postponed because of Covid, that made it a challenge.
"Probably in those games, we would have rotated a little bit and we ended up with the first couple of weeks having seven to ten days between the games.
"So that gave us a great chance to see the players in training and to work with the squad and work with individuals, but at the end of the day, the biggest test us going out on a match pitch.
"The players all want to play and they want their chance to show what they can do in a match.
"Obviously, we’ve been able to rotate a little bit in the last few games and keep the results at a high level and some of the performances, so that helps us. It keeps everybody hungry and it keeps more players involved.
"We want the message to be that if you’re training well and you’re competing well on a daily basis, then there will be an opportunity over the course of the season.
"We want to keep the squad big enough that we have depth in every position until the end of the season.
"And when we do get the opportunity to change the team around a little bit, that helps with the dynamic and the morale within the squad and helps us to keep the environment and competition good, hopefully until the end of the season.”