Argyle have to wait for reinforcements
The Pilgrims are not expecting to see any of their four injured players return this weekend
Defender Scott Wootton should be the first of Plymouth Argyle’s four remaining injured players to make a return to action, according to manager Derek Adams.
However, that will not be in time for the 27-year-old to be available for the Pilgrims’ next League One game, against Burton Albion at Home Park on Saturday.
Wootton has been out of action with a thigh problem since he limped out of the 2-1 defeat away to Charlton Athletic on September 22.
Also in a treatment room at the moment are captain Gary Sawyer (broken foot), rightback Joe Riley (knee) and striker Ryan Taylor (ankle), who have all been absent for a number of games now.
Adams told Herald Sport: “Scott Wootton will be the first one back. He is jogging at this moment in time but still feeling his thigh muscle.
“The next one back should be Ryan Taylor, then it should be Joe Riley and then it should be Gary Sawyer.”
In the absence of Wootton, Adams has a choice of three centre-backs for the game against Burton – Niall Canavan, who has recently returned from a groin injury, Ryan Edwards and Peter Grant.
Yann Songo’o would also have been an option had he not been sent off near the end of the 2-0 defeat away to Oxford United last Saturday.
Songo’o was dismissed for a second bookable offence after a rash sliding tackle on Oxford’s former Plymouth striker Jamie Mackie in the 81st minute. He will serve a one-match suspension when bottom-of-the-table Argyle play 15th-placed Burton.
Adams said: “There is not much we can do about that. Yann deserved the booking for the second foul.
“I don’t think he deserved the booking for the first foul but he obviously knew he was on a booking. So he was illadvised to go for the challenge [on Mackie] and he suffered the consequences.
“Yann has been late in the tackle. At that stage in the game we didn’t really need to go down to ten men.”
Adams has also revealed that he wants his side to become more street-wise so they can turn around their season in League One. He believes there are lessons to be learned for his players from their defeat to Oxford.
He pointed to the way that Oxford, and Mackie in particular, were able to slow down and break up play as Argyle trailed for most of the match.
That came after Mackie had opened the scoring for the home side in the fourth minute. Adams said: “I thought that Oxford were street-wise. They had experienced players in their team, typified in Jamie Mackie.
“He was probably lucky he didn’t get sent off in the game. He held the ball up for them, he roughed up our centrehalves and he scored a goal.
“In the midfield, they had [Ricky] Holmes, who was able to do a job, and he got one of our players booked. Then [Argyle full-back] Ashley Smith-Brown might have got sent off after that because of the way that the fouls came, so I had to take him off.”
Adams added: “All in all, I thought their experience throughout their team was better than the experience that we had in our team.
“They allowed the play to stop, they allowed the petty fouls to get in the way. I think they managed the game a lot better than us.”
The former Ross County boss continued: “You definitely need to learn from it if you are going to be a player at this level because it is part and parcel of the game.
“Jamie Mackie did ever so well, in backing in and facing our players. He got the man-ofthe-match [award] but the way he played the game he wasn’t penalised by the officials,” Adams concluded.