Portsmouth’s boss’ Joe Pigott admission as Ipswich Town loanee finds himself benched after Cardiff City goal

But the Pompey boss paid tribute to the Ipswich Town loanee for his attitude after finding himself out of the starting XI, following his maiden goal helped knock Cardiff City out of the Carabao Cup.

Pigott was introduced off the bench against Cheltenham Town and did likewise against former side Cambridge United in the 4-1 victory.

Cowley believes his attitude epitomises that seen from his squad as Pompey start the season in positive fashion.

He said: ‘It’s always pleasing when your number nine in scoring.

‘But I felt Colby (Bishop) was really well assisted by Dane (Scarlett), who didn’t give the opponent a moment’s rest.

‘Joe did the same when he came on - and Joe can feel really hard done by himself by the way.

‘He scores at Cardiff on a night when we beat a Championship side and then doesn’t start the next two games.

‘He hasn’t moaned, hasn’t whinged and came on and made a difference for us.

‘There’s a lot of unselfish boys who are willing to put the team first here.

‘That gives us a real collective strength.’

Pompey now sit third in the League One table and are unbeaten after four games this term.

Cowley is refusing to get too carried away, however, as he kept the positive start to the campaign in context.

The 43-year-old can see plenty to be encouraged about but isn’t blind to the areas where he side need to develop.

He added: ‘We’re a work in progress so we’re not getting carried away.

‘At 35 minutes we’re a goal down and we’d not been as good as we’d wanted to be.

‘So just because at 90 minutes we’d scored four goals doesn’t mean we’re going to get ahead of ourselves.

‘It’s five games, we’ve scored goals and looked strong defensively.

‘But we’re a long way away from where we want to be and being the finished article.

‘We’re enjoying working hard though and we’re enjoying improving.’