Bristol Rovers manager Matt Taylor has been impressed with Elkan Baggott’s drastic improvements following a slow start from the Ipswich Town loanee.
Baggott joined Rovers on loan from Ipswich in the January transfer window until the end of the 2023/24 campaign. The centre-back struggled to break into the Gas’ starting lineup initially and was subbed off after just 28 minutes in Rovers’ 3-2 comeback win at Stevenage in February.
The Indonesian international recovered from the Stevenage setback and started to improve with a run of five consecutive matches between late February and March. However, Baggott’s run ended in mid-March when he was ruled out with a calf injury.
As a result, the 21-year-old was absent for four matches before returning in Gas’ 3-1 victory at Cheltenham Town. Upon his return, Baggott showed no signs of rustiness and put in a star performance by scoring Rovers’ second goal and hitting the woodwork, as recorded by Whoscored.
The defender has started the last two League One fixtures and produced consistent displays in a 1-0 victory over Cambridge United and a 2-0 loss at Peterborough. When speaking to the Bristol Post after the loss at Peterborough, Rovers’ manager Taylor was full of praise for Baggott, who has impressed since his early struggles at Stevenage two months ago.
“He’s been a credit to himself and to his parent club in the time he’s been with us. The way he’s conducted himself, the way he’s trained, the way he’s played as well and then his performances on top of that.
“It’s a perfect example of a loan player who has had, inactivity of proper football, competitive football for the first half of the season, he obviously went away with Indonesia in a tournament which is totally different to Stevenage and the rigours of League One.”
In addition, Taylor was brutally honest about Baggott’s slow start to life at the Memorial Stadium since joining from Ipswich. Although the 42-year-old coach highlighted how the 21-year-old has benefitted from slowly being introduced back into the fold at Bristol Rovers.
“He’s a young player, and he will have needed that first six, seven games which were quite painful, we have to be honest, in terms of where he was in terms of game time, and he needed that.”
Writer’s View
Baggott will be pleased with his upturn in form, while parent club Ipswich will also be positive about their player’s progress late in the season. Consistency in League One was perhaps the next step for the Indonesian international, following previous loan spells in the National League with Kings Lynn and League Two with Gillingham, according to Transfermarkt.
Short term, Baggott will likely target a strong finish to the League One campaign with Rovers, who have one fixture left against Wigan away. However, the young player has shown potential to perform in the third tier and the Tractor Boys may be eager for their 21-year-old prospect to build his senior experience at this level next season.
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