Plymouth have also had some players return from injury, and Waine may just have been squeezed out.
Pilgrims host lowly Cambridge (21st) this weekend, so maybe a game they bring Waine onto the bench to manage a heavy schedule - if Waine is fit. 4 games left to finish the regular season. 3 of them at home, 3 of them against teams around the mid table who may not have much to play for. Cambridge desperate to avoid relegation could even be Plymouth's toughest match in the run in.
Still tight in the promotion race, with Pilgrims now having 2 home games against Burton Albion & Bristol Rovers who both have nothing to play for but pride. So Plymouth in a good spot
Victory (1-0)and guaranteed promotion back to The Championship. Will take the title next week if they do better than Ipswich who also are guaranteed to go up.coochiee
Cue promotion party. No Waine in the squad for that 1-0 win
Promotion might not be the best thing for Waine. He's already battling just to make matchday squads; he's played 239 out of 1800 league minutes since he signed. I'd assume Plymouth will look to strengthen their squad having gone up a tier, so he could be bumped further down the pecking order.
Plymouth (1st - lead by a point from Ipswich) travel to Port Vale (18th - nothing to play for). Pilgrims win and L1 title is theirs. Lose/draw and it will depend on result of Ipswich at Fleetwood Town.
who is to say wood can't be in the June squad? Forest said he was out for the season but the season ends 3 weeks before the Sweden gamecoochiee
No Waine. Note comments above about an ankle injury. Hopefully he's okay to replace Wood in the AWs squad for Sweden in June.
Edit - Plymouth trail 1-0 after only 3 mins.
Edit 2 - Plymouth come back to win 3-1, and therefore are League One champions!
Read the Wood thread. Forest manager said he won't be back training until July. Thigh was operated on.
NZF/AWs will need to be a very careful, now how they manage relationship with Wood's club. If he aggravated the initial thigh injury he had in the UK, whilst in NZ training with the AWs in March - Forest will not be happy at the moment as they battle to avoid the drop. Admittedly is not clear to us where Wood sustained the thigh injury (other thigh?) that actually saw him operated on.
All seems a bit moot, as he's unlikely to be fit by June, let alone for a meaningless friendly against Sweden (3 years before a World Cup) - as his club will see it. Chance for Mata/Waine/Greive to step up.
Ben Waine with the late cameo in Plymouth Argyle’s opening game victory
Makes his English Championship debut - the first NZer to play in the division since… Stefan Marinovic’s one-and-done game for Bristol City in March 2019 #FlyingKiwishttps://t.co/pIyQ6D3CyE
From Flying Kiwis. Love to see it. Ben Waine got on for the last five minutes of Plymouth Argyle’s return to the Championship. He’d served a lot of unused sub duty last season (injuries didn’t help) so there was no guarantee he’d be straight into the matchday squad let alone being one of the substitutes used but he did both and thus becomes the first NZer to feature in this division since Stefan Marinovic’s one-and-done appearance for Bristol City in March 2019. It’s been a long time since Tommy Smith and Chris Wood were ripping this thing up on the weekly.
To be fair, it does help Waineo’s case that they only really have two strikers in the first team at the moment. Ryan Hardie and himself. The manager is on record saying he’d like to sign another centre forward before the window closes. There’s always gonna be competition... but they’re also big fans of Waine at the Pilgrims, their initial scouting excitement having been raised by how he’s settled in.
Plymouth Argyle began their EFL Championship campaign with a lovely 3-1 win over Huddersfield. It was 1-1 with twenty to go and potentially on track for Waine to make it a hat-trick of super sub Flying Kiwis this week... but that wasn’t necessary because Bali Mumba scored a belter on 74’ and then Ryan Hardie added to that two minutes later. Extended highlights over here. Great to get early points on the board as a club that’s expected to have one of the lowest budgets in the division.
Up Next: EFL Cup against Leyton Orient on Weeds at 6.45am; Watford vs Plymouth at 2am on Sunday (NZT)
that's the first goal against Huddersfield haha. from the sounds, Waine's first against Orient was him pouncing on a bad backpass and rounding the keeper
that's the first goal against Huddersfield haha. from the sounds, Waine's first against Orient was him pouncing on a bad backpass and rounding the keeper
Was beginning to doubt if I knew my rights and lefts…