Boss Paul Cook hailed Bersant Celina’s first-half injury-time chip, which proved the winner in Town's 2-1 victory over Crewe Alexandra, as one of the most special goals he has ever seen.

The Kosovan’s brilliant effort added to an early Luke Offord own goal to give the Blues a 2-0 half-time lead with Chris Long pulling one back for the Railwaymen in the second half.

Town started like a house on fire but the final minutes ended up nervy for Town, who missed chances and allowed Crewe, who remain bottom, to have opportunities of their own.

Cook admitted that in the early stages it looked like it was going to be a comfortable win for his team.

“As a manager, I watch the games no differently than our supporters and we are what we are,” he said. “This is the team that we’ve got and I know fans will ask why one or two other people weren’t playing and I get it, I do really get it.

“But you’re trying to build confidence, you’re trying to put lads back out there to go again. We wanted to play much more aggressively because, like I said to the players, if we send the supporters to sleep, it’s our job to wake them up.

“And the only way you’ll wake them up is by creating chances, putting crosses in the box and scoring goals, and we looked like we wanted to do it.

“But then we just look like we want to stop. Why would you get tired of being good at what you’re doing? But that’s we’re at with these players.

“You knew the third goal in the game was always going to be a big goal because it’s going to dent one team’s confidence and Crewe never went away all game.

“Crewe were exceptionally good today, they play with an identity and a style that’s great credit to [manager] Dave [Artell] and his staff

“You’d never know their league position and they put us unbelievable pressure where at the end we were hanging on, but we’ve won.”

Where does that inconsistency within games stem from? “We can only give them messages, we can only send them out. I think you’d think it was something that we’re trying to tell them.

“I think we’re now 20 games in, I think the consistency is our inconsistency and that’s probably something that we’re going to have to manage for a period of time.”

Regarding the game’s highlight, Celina’s goal, Cook said: “What a goal, it’s a goal that should win any game, that can lift up any stadium. I think people should be talking about it for a long time.

“Bersant’s got that quality. That was why we were all excited to sign him, all excited to bring him back in and obviously it’s lit the game up today and great credit to Bersant for that.”

He added: “I think that’s what everyone should leave the stadium speaking about. I think today it was always going to be a bit of nervy game, you’re playing a team that’s bottom of a league that everyone expects you to beat.

“You’ve seen Crewe play today, Crewe are no duck eggs, Crewe are a very well-drilled, well-coached team and you get a moment from Santi on the stroke of half-time.

“I’ve been in lots of stadiums all through my life and that’s one of the most special goals I’ve ever seen.

“An unbelievable goal. I remember Steven Gerrard scoring one against Middlesbrough at Anfield years ago when he’s just hit a missile from about 45 yards.

“Today when Santi got it, like the crowd I’m thinking ‘Take it into the corner and we’ll go in 1-0’ because that was where we were at. And he just produces that moment of magic that only probably he in the team has got. Unbelievable, a fantastic goal.”

Cook also had praise for Sone Aluko, who returned to the team having missed the Rotherham match following his father’s death and created Offord’s third-minute own goal.

“Sone’s had a tough week obviously, he’s missed a bit of training so we always felt he might be a little bit leggy,” the Blues manager continued. “But he always gives us moments of magic, Sone. Again he’s a quality player.

“We wanted that start to kick us on to have a really strong home win. OK, we’ve only had really one disappointing performance against Rotherham and that would have given us all a lift. We haven’t got that performance today but we’ve got the win.”

It wasn’t that Town didn’t have chances, on another day they might have had four or five: “The moments in games come and you must take them. For any striker, any player, any flair player, when the chances come, if you don’t put teams away, they will still [keep coming at you], especially in these divisions now where teams are so well coached. There are no easy games.

“Crewe will keep knocking on the door like they did and they’ll take a bit of a chance with their shape late on where they’ll throw men forward, and they did, and we were hanging on at the end.

“Like I just said to the players, at three o’clock today, the big objective was to win and come the end of the season no one will remember how you’ve won, like no one will remember how we lost at Sunderland last week.”

Macauley Bonne has now gone five games without a goal but Cook has no doubt the 11-goal top scorer will be back finding the target soon.

“Football’s football,” he reflected. “Macauley’s now going through that stage where probably as month ago everything he touched was gold. Now all of a sudden he’s trying too hard and that’s football.

“Macauley just needs to get his shirt on, go out and play again and score a goal, and that’s when confidence will flood back.”

Cook utilised Fraser as one of the deeper two midfielders: “Just trying to get Scotty more involved in the game, he’s one of our most productive players with the ball, certainly passing forward. We had a little look at that. At times we thought it worked well and at other times it didn’t.

“No different than everything we try, we’re trying aspects to see whether it’ll help us be better. Sometimes you feel it does and sometimes you feel it doesn’t.”

Asked how he felt on the bench in the final minutes, he said: “Antagonised, moaning, praying, everything you can do in a game because you never, ever got to the point where if we’d have put one of the chances away [you’d have felt safe].

“Probably Kyle Edwards, where he’d been on a great run and Kyle needs that moment, that would have just lifted the fans, we’d have seen two great goals.

“And those moments have to go your way. And I certainly believe we’ll keep working very hard and make sure that they do.”

Before the game Cook said he felt the players needed to give the fans a lift after the disappointing performance against Rotherham. Did the display against the Railwaymen do that?

“I think the supporters would have demanded a win before the game, I think it was important that we did win. Was the performance good enough to make us all leave happy? No, of course it wasn’t,” Cook admitted.

“But we’ve won. Again, as I keep saying, we’re 20 games in with a brand new squad. We all understand football, we more so than anyone understanding the rules of management and all that comes with it, but somewhere along the lines you have to give players time, managers time to grow that club because if we don’t unfortunately that’s the industry we’re in. Today it was a very, very scrappy win in the end, but it was a win.”

Looking ahead to Wednesday’s Papa John’s Trophy visit by Arsenal’s U21s, he added: “It’s a big week for us this week with three competitions.

“We want to do well in all competitions, it’s something that we suggested to the players, if we could put three wins together this week it would give everyone a lift around Portman Road going into Christmas and post-Christmas. We’ve done one hurdle and we’ve got two big ones to go.”

Crewe manager Artell felt his side deserved to take something from the match despite having given the Blues a two-goal start.

“I thought how we approached the game and how we played we were terrific and deserved something from the game,” he said.

“When you give them a two-goal start it’s even harder, however the fans have seen a team that’s trying to play the right way and we created numerous opportunities.

“I think that’s a credit to the players. I think they have been magnificent today.

“We know that if we keep playing like we’re playing, we are going to win games of football and we are going to keep developing.

“We’re developers, we’ve lost the game, we’re in the performance industry but I think the Crewe fans have probably gone away more happier than the Ipswich fans — apart from the result.”

Photo: TWTD

blueboy1981 added 07:18 - Nov 29 I truly believe that Cook knows the game, he knows what needs to happen, more and more I believe that his ex right hand man Richardson was ‘the man' to actually get it across. Their partnership worked well, Cook doesn't have that now, and I think that is the missing link. Partnerships work well in Football, on and off the pitch, as we all know - but it has to be right !! Cook is struggling to be honest, to find that missing link that he once had. Obviously, he needs that.

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inghamspur added 07:37 - Nov 29 He did bu88er all the rest of the game though!!
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johnwarksshorts added 08:25 - Nov 29 Had we put our chances away it would have been a different story. Not comfortable watching but 3 points is 3 points. COYB!
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ChrisFelix added 09:14 - Nov 29 This game should have been a comfortable win. I realise Bonne misses the effect of Burns but a top 6 striker should convert at least one of the chances which came his way. We are lucky that we have proven strikers already at the club, so it's time for a change up top. Followed Town for nearly 60 years, probably the best individual goal I have ever seen on this ground

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DMDC added 09:53 - Nov 29 Just saying what the fans want to hear. How about actually doing something about it then Mr Cook ? Im not sure you can or ever could come to that.
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Europablue added 10:20 - Nov 29 The entire problem is not finishing well. We weren't unlucky against Sunderland, we just didn't take our chances. Rotherham didn't need to do much to beat us because we never looked like scoring. As much as we all love Bonne, players need to be dropped when they aren't on form. I'm not talking about one off match, there have been a few now.
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dirtydingusmagee added 11:02 - Nov 29 dont get your point Karlos , if we had won 4-1 of course the comments wouldnt be the same, but we didnt, we were poor and fortunate to win 2-1 against a team who are nailed on Lge2.
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Jugsy added 11:04 - Nov 29 It's probably too optimistic of me but maybe this will be the turning point to give Pigott a run up top, or even Chaplin and play Celina behind him. Bonne has bags of passion but it almost seems to be hindering him now, it's the one position that doesn't seem to get a change. Two chances he should have put away, Chaplin went for a diving header where he had time for the ball to drop and Edwards leaves men in his wake for the most awful slice of a shot - easily the boys should have had a hat full. I imagine Wednesday night and Saturday will give Pigott an opportunity to stake his claim (ala Chaplin at Gillingham) and could be good for the team. But who knows, maybe his attitude stinks and he's not putting the yards in in training? We got three points, we should have had more goals but now we move on and build.

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dirtydingusmagee added 11:07 - Nov 29 If team is not playing the way the manager wants, then the fault is also with the manager, he should be able MAKE SURE THEY DO .what ever it takes, its the same in any job .
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Monkey_Blue added 11:22 - Nov 29 Spot on Dirty…. How can a man employed to coach/manage good performances be excused from blame when they are absent? He is responsible for performances and results and neither have been good since he arrived despite all the advantages he's been afforded.
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Monkey_Blue added 11:28 - Nov 29 Karlosfandangel…. What aboutism is the refuge of those without a decent argument about the situation they are discussing. So what if Plymouth fans are being unreasonable? They are being unreasonable because they haven't had the massive budget Cook has, they don't have the home and away support Cook gets, the expectations that come with or are languishing mid table. Just because Plymouth fans are unhappy when they should be feeling “this is better than we expected” doesn't mean given entirely different circumstances we can't say “this isn't as good as we expected” and be correct. Cook has been handed a royal flush and is in the process of losing against a pair.

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ThaiBlue added 14:44 - Nov 29 Shame we aint got a special manager
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Linkboy13 added 18:19 - Nov 29 Yes Bonne is looking a bit leggy and lacking that sharpness he had at the start of the season. Pigott for me just dosent look interested when he has played no passion, desire or work rate for a man of his physic. Clubs dont give players a run of games unless they show the effort or desire . We might need to get another striker in the January transfer window. I see Jordan Hugal currently is not getting a game for WBA although this might be a bit ambitious.

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cat added 20:01 - Nov 29 Honest assessment from P.C. Not sure how the manager can take the wrap for poor finishing but that's a fair reflection of yesterday's ‘tight' game. Not a performance to rejoice about but, however it's 3 points in the bag and reverse fortunes from the visit to Sunderland where we put in a performance and got nothing. That's football for you so you take it when you can, but some will never be happy.

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