Danny Cowley details Portsmouth's 'intelligent' approach towards avoiding Colby Bishop burn out

The former Accrington man has been an excellent summer acquisition, with eight goals in 11 appearances, coupled with impressive work-rate.

According to Cowley, the striker covers 12km a game – an outstanding statistic reflecting his unselfish commitment to the Blues’ cause.

As a consequence, Bishop was handed a night off against Aston Villa Under-21s on Tuesday evening in the Papa John’s Trophy.

That’s now three successive cup fixtures the 25-year-old has been omitted from Pompey’s squad – and their head coach is adamant it’s the correct approach.

Cowley told The News: ‘Colby has a heavy workload and when you’re a number nine and playing up against two ugly centre-halves, sometimes three, it makes sense to move it around.

‘It’s not just Colby, we have also done it with Marlon Pack and Michael Morrison in the Papa John’s Trophy.

‘We see that competition as an opportunity to give game time to the squad and continue building relationships with the Academy. It’s a development opportunity, with always a view to try to win.

‘Colby has unselfish link play, which is 12km a game – that’s a huge effort for the team.

‘I’ve been so impressed with the way he works for the team defensively. As a striker, we ask a lot from them, we want to defend early and they have to be willing to run the hard yards, putting pressure on the ball, but also to get back in and be available to pick up the second ball.

‘For that profile of number nine, 12km a game is super high.

‘We knew that Colby was mobile, if they’re not mobile it restricts the way we want to play, so that’s important.

‘However, you must be intelligent with your selection. We would love for them to be able to play every game, they would love to be able to play every game – but they’re human beings.

‘If you are going to be a successful team and play 60 games in a season, you look at what’s to come, particularly at the back end of October, when it gets really busy for us.’

Another not featuring in the 5-0 demolition of Villa’s kids was Dane Scarlett.

It was the first match in all competitions the Spurs loanee has not been involved in for the Blues, yet Cowley felt it wise to hand him a break.

Particularly when the 18-year-old completed his first 90 minutes in Saturday’s 3-2 defeat at Ipswich.

Cowley added: ‘It was great for Dane to play 90 minutes at Ipswich.

‘That was his first 90 and he was able to keep his intensity, which was making me a bit nervous because he’s very precious to us!

‘We like to look after him.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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