Town boss Kieran McKenna says he’s disappointed for on-loan striker Joe Pigott that his opportunities at Portsmouth have been so limited during the first half of the season.

Pigott joined Pompey in the summer on a season-long but has made only 10 starts - just four in the league - and 13 sub appearances, scoring four times, and has admitted his frustration, while there have been rumours that the move might be cut short and the 29-year-old sent out for another spell elsewhere in the second half of the campaign.

Portsmouth ensured, as part of the deal which saw Marcus Harness join the Blues on a permanent basis in the summer, that Town can't recall Pigott in January.

Asked about the situation with the striker, with the January transfer window opening tomorrow, McKenna said: “Joe Pigott, we got to speak to a little bit at the game the other night, which was nice.

"No update from our side. There’s no recall clause in the contract from the club’s point of view, which has been publicised, I think. We’ve not had any contact, anything to the contrary.

“Of course, disappointed for Joe in terms of how many minutes he’s played because he’s a very good player and a very good person and it was a season where we really wanted him to get first-team football.

“We wouldn’t usually have let him go on loan to a divisional rival, if you will, but Joe felt like it was such a good opportunity for him to go and play games at a big football club that from a personal point of view we were willing to give that opportunity.

“Of course, then when two other strikers are signed the following week [Dane Scarlett on loan from Spurs and Colby Bishop from Accrington], it becomes difficult for him at an individual level and he’s not had the opportunities that he would have wanted or that he was probably promised.

“So that’s been disappointing and knowing Joe he’ll be working hard and competing very hard in training to get more opportunities in the second half of the season, and that’s what we hope for.”

Photo: Matchday Images

Bazza8564 added 16:06 - Dec 31 Its not doing him any favors being there but the lad wanted to go, Portsmouth are presumably paying his wages and Harness has ben an excellent signing so its not as if we really have grounds for complaint. In an ideal world PFC will release him and we can either loan him out in L2, or let him find a club that is attracted by a player exchange with one of our incoming targets? With respect to the lad he is a long way down our pecking order and the earlier he gets some games the better for him.

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Linkboy13 added 17:48 - Dec 31 Yes Bazza he's just found the step up to a bigger club a bit too much. When you join a big club you are not allowed many bad games with so much strength in depth. I think he could still do a job in league one at a club like say Accrington or Morecombe where the pressure is not so great to perform well every game. Perhaps a loan back at AFC Wimbledon where he performed so well might kick start his career. Ideally would luv to see him return to Portman road and do well but that seems very unlikely at the moment.

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Radlett_blue added 11:25 - Jan 1 I don't know how much of Pigott's wages Pompey are paying, but very few other clubs in League 1 or 2 will be willing to pay even a high proportion of his wages so I think he's stuck at Pompey for the rest of the season. I'm sure he wants to play & it's likely he will get a pay off & a free transfer in the summer.
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