Town boss Paul Cook has revealed he has apologised to striker Joe Pigott for his lack of involvement this season and expects the summer signing from AFC Wimbledon to start this evening’s Papa John’s Trophy tie at home to Colchester in which he reiterated that he will field a changed but still first-team side.

Pigott joined the Blues on a free transfer in the close season after leaving the Dons but with Macauley Bonne having made a very strong start to the campaign, scoring 11 times, the 27-year-old has been on the periphery.

So far, the Maidstone-born frontman has scored three times in five starts and four sub appearances.

“I apologised to Joe Pigott over the weekend for the lack of minutes that he’s had,” Cook said at last night’s fans’ forum.

“One of the things that as a staff we debate is that it’s very difficult to take Macauley Bonne off a pitch, it’s very difficult.

“If you look even on Saturday, Chaplin comes on, Sone Aluko comes on, who have scored goals, we’re always bringing on goalscorers on in general.

“I 100 per cent agree with you, Joe Pigott should possibly have had more minutes, but if you look at Chaplin, who has gone in as a 10 and has got five quickly, Celina’s gone in as a 10 and has got goals quickly, Aluko’s gone in and got goals quickly.

“There’s only Kyle Edwards now that we’re looking at and obviously working with Kyle on getting that assist and goal-rate up because the front four of the team has to score goals.

“I agree 100 per cent with you, Joe Pigott especially should have had more minutes and hopefully he’s going to start on Tuesday night and hopefully we can see a little bit more of Joe.”

Regarding this evening’s team, Cook added: “The team and the subs bench will be made up of all first-team players. It’s a very strong starting XI, there will be changes obviously from Saturday but then the subs’ bench will be all first-team players again.

“I do think winning becomes a habit and getting to Wembley would be a fantastic occasion for everybody, so why can’t we give it a good go on Tuesday night?”

Cook was also asked about his coaching staff and revealed something of how things work on the training field and also on Town’s defensive frustrations.

“Francis Jeffers does all the defensive set pieces, Gary Roberts does all the attacking set pieces and I do all the team play, so everything’s on me with the team play,” he said.

“One of the things that I’ve found is that in games in general, we can defend. We just have lapses in concentration.

“We’ve defended in games really, really well but we come under great pressure in a lot of games. We have quite a lot of control of most games and what we’ve got to make sure we do is that we pay full attention for 94, 95 whatever minutes it is.

“The attention to detail nowadays in football, every team knows literally everything that the opposition will do.

“When we take the pitch against Oxford on Saturday we’ll know exactly their formation, we’ll have studied how they play, their key players. All our players get all the clips of the opposing player.

“For example, even on Saturday, Christian Walton would have seen clips of Oldham’s penalty taker [Dylan Bahamboula] and it was quite funny because when their guys came in after the game they went ‘He keeps putting them in the same place!’. Thank God for that! That’s how much detail goes into football now.”

Cook also outlined why Town’s home match against Crewe Alexandra is being played on Sunday 28th November rather than the previous day.

“I think it was to give us more time to recover from the Tuesday night game,” he said. “I think it was just an option we took up, if I’m not mistaken, I think after Crewe on the Sunday, there’ll be no game until the Saturday.

“It was just something that we thought might be a little bit different, it gives us a little bit of extra recovery. Maybe just something a little bit different possibly for our supporters as well.”

Photo: Pagepix

philpott2 added 13:05 - Nov 9 Hopefully Pigott will see what Bonne is doing and up his game. I watched the Morecombe game and was totally underwhelmed by him. He wasn't interested in the ball at all, just looking at the defender and trying to win free kicks every time that it (the ball) came near him. He didn't work anywhere near as hard as he should have been doing to win it. Nor did he try and do much with it when he did. A big reputation (for our level), like Norwood but not enough being done to score a goal or three.

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Gilesy added 13:13 - Nov 9 That's a bit harsh based on one game at the start of the season!
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bedsitfc added 13:25 - Nov 9 Pigott is a good quality striker in this league and maybe can do well in championship! But all his success has been with a strike partner so when we got him in I was happy as I thought Cook would be willing to change his 1 and only formation! Cook has hindered Pigott's career
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stringy added 13:28 - Nov 9 why is an ex-striker (Jeffers) in charge of defensive duties... bit weird that one
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Sparky85 added 13:33 - Nov 9 Agree we need to see more of JP, but with the form Bonne is in there is no question who starts at the moment. Hopefully given a god chance JP can show what he can do. One thing that struck me from the above is 'Jeffers does defensive set pieces'. Not trying to be negative but makes me wonder what experience he has in that area considering the type of player he was. I really do think a defensive coach is a priority

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BlueBadger added 13:35 - Nov 9 Interesting that he makes no mention of Fatty Norbuckle. I reckon he'll be gone in January.
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philpott2 added 13:36 - Nov 9 Possibly, Gilesy but he was one of the earlier arrivals.....and as Cook has said, he hasn't played much so that's all I can base it on. I thought Donacien was excellent in that game, but Fraser weak and lightweight, Burns and Harper not fit. Burns now is looking class, Donacien has been playing very well and Evans appears more focused with Morsy looking good beside him. So the fact that none of Pigott, Harper and Fraser have been starting recently would suggest they've some work still to do on the training ground to impress Cook. (And I realise too that Fraser was out for a bit in October)

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Ipswichbusiness added 13:43 - Nov 9 If you're looking for a defensive coach, how about someone like Allan Hunter or Terry Butcher?
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Bazza8564 added 13:50 - Nov 9 Pigott will be fine, we have 33 games minimum left even if we lose in both cups, Bonne wont stay fresh and fit for all of that time, I expect as a minimum Joe to start tonight and in the Oldham replay. Let's not forget he's just lost a parent, the extended break will have helped him start to recover from that, Im looking forward to us getting the most out of rotating this squad, we will need to

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Linkboy13 added 13:54 - Nov 9 When you sign nineteen new players not all of them are going to come off for different reasons. Yes philpot 2 i agree with you Pigott for a big man shows very little aggression and work rate and perhaps has just not settled into his new environment. People keep saying when things are not going well why don't we play two up front. Well the answer to that is we are the top scorers in the league. The problem Pigott is not capable of playing on his own because of his work rate and physicality. At the end of the day it's all about the team not individual players.

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ringwoodblue added 13:55 - Nov 9 With Norwood seemingly out of the picture, if Bonne gets injured or goes back to QPR in January (really hope we sign him permanently), Pigott suddenly becomes very important to our promotion chances as our main striker so Cook should be giving him minutes now so that he is up fully up to speed and in the habit of scoring when needed.
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OwainG1992 added 14:00 - Nov 9 Franny Jeffers isn't in charge of the defence. Just defensive set piece work. Set piece defending we generally seem strong at. It's the brain farts we suffer.
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TimmyH added 14:06 - Nov 9 I wonder if he'll apologise to Norwood for his lack of involvement too?, one of the few players (when fit) last season did okay but hardly had a kick this season! but then again he's not 'one' of Cook's players :)
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Monkey_Blue added 14:11 - Nov 9 Why is Jeffers doing the defensive duties? And secondly cooks follow on comment threw both of the coaches under the coach… I mean bus. He's straight out just said he's not taking the blame For poor defensive set piece play of poor attacking set plays. He's the manager so everything on the pitch is his responsibility no matter who does the coaching. If the coaches are poor it's on cook as he hired them. What a cowardly statement.

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Monkey_Blue added 14:13 - Nov 9 Also you don't apologise to a player for him not playing unless you've made a mistake not playing him. Cook says he's apologised but then defends not playing him. It's like apologising for invading Poland then saying they deserved it. He's either a narcissist or an idiot.
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Stato added 14:44 - Nov 9 I'm not a Cook fan but applaud him for apologising to Pigott and also for going public with that. Cook seems even to me to be getting most things right with our attacking play. I personally don't agree with playing Celina at 10 but no doubt others think this is fine. All players come in and out of form and that will include Bonne so hopefully Cook will have the judgement to decide when to switch Bonne for Pigott and I for one won't be criticising him when he does that but it will be a brave call

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ajs83 added 14:58 - Nov 9 The midweek after the Crewe game is EFL Trophy Round 2 (most likely Wednesday 1st December) so we won't have a free midweek after the Crewe game (assuming we get through tonight of course).
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Monkey_Blue added 15:20 - Nov 9 BossMan… a public admission like this is ok if it's not then followed by him listing four players he feels deserves to play more than pigott. Also a manager shouldn't apologise for not picking a player who's not pulling up trees. In general a manager should stand by his decisions, unless they are obviously wrong. Do you think we'd be higher up the table if we played pigott instead of Bonne?

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terryf added 15:32 - Nov 9 And so he should apologise to Pigott. We all love Bonne but sometimes he can be frustrating. How many times in good positions does he hit the goalkeeper or defender. Surely someone on the Training Ground should tell him to just hit the angles. There have been several games when I think Cook should be giving Pigott thirty minutes and the same applies with Harper, but then Cook definitely has his favourites, Mr Evans for one?

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Len_Brennan added 15:42 - Nov 9 I would like to see a fit Tom Carroll get some minutes; I was really impressed with him at a time when Harper & Evans were getting outdone in midfield & think he might be an important player for us before the season is out, if he can stay fit for a run of games.
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DifferentGravy added 16:47 - Nov 9 As frustrating as it may be for Pigott, surely he was aware, prior to signing, that Cook plays 1 up top. Think Pigott prefers a partner and personally I like to see two up front. But the recent performances against Pompey, Plymouth and Wycombe have been really enjoyable. Ultimately, if the team are creating chances, scoring goals and have a decent win percentage then I doubt expect many of us will gripe about the formation.

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DifferentGravy added 16:47 - Nov 9 As frustrating as it may be for Pigott, surely he was aware, prior to signing, that Cook plays 1 up top. Think Pigott prefers a partner and personally I like to see two up front. But the recent performances against Pompey, Plymouth and Wycombe have been really enjoyable. Ultimately, if the team are creating chances, scoring goals and have a decent win percentage then I doubt expect many of us will gripe about the formation.

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Linkboy13 added 17:07 - Nov 9 Can't believe the negativity on here all this rubbish about playing two up front just to accommodate a player who's looked disinterested when he has been picked. We are top scorers in league one dosent matter where the goals are coming from. Playing two up front isn't going to make us tighter at the back. Can't wait for Saturday where i shall be cheering on Cook's little favourites.

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