Coventry City (H) | Hardie's Preview
When Ryan Hardie scored a trademark goal at Sunderland on Saturday, complete with a check inside and outside, following by a dink over the goalkeeper, he drew himself level with an Argyle – and English football – legend.
In his 192nd game, Ryan scored his 61st goal, which puts him joint-15th on the all-time Argyle goalscorers list. He is level with none other than the great Paul Mariner.
Hardie is now eyeing other names above him on the list, and seeing his 200th game in the green and white on the horizon.
“It's been an honour,” he said. “When I came to the club on loan for six months from Blackpool the first time, I never thought that this occasion (reaching 200 games) would have come. I've been looking it up and counting it down to the games, and it's going to come on my birthday - well, the day before.
“If I play a minute in each game until the game on 16 March, my birthday is the next day, so it'll be a nice way to bring it in. Hopefully that'll happen, and we can get some results along the way.
“[Mariner] is a massive name; one of the names that you see around the club, on the walls and things like that. It's obviously a privilege to get there and I want to just keep climbing and see how far I can get. I don't know who's next, but hopefully I can tick the next one off soon.”
To answer Ryan’s question, the next name on list is Paul Wotton, five goals above Hardie (“I'm coming for him, let's go!” said Ryan). At his current rate, there is no reason Hardie will not surpass Wotton on the goals chart this season. Hardie has 12 goals to his name, having missed portions through injury, and his goal at Sunderland made it six goals in his last ten games.
“I felt like I started the season really well,” he said. “I went through a bit of a dry spell and then got the injury which put me out for seven games or something like that, then I came back and in the second game back, I got concussion and missed another couple.
“I've started to feel good again, getting into the rhythm of playing games. And with playing games has come some goals. It's form that I'm happy with and hopefully it can continue for the rest of the season.”
Argyle have three games in the next week, all against teams around the play-off area, and all at Home Park. Before Saturday’s game against Leeds United, then a Tuesday-night encounter with West Bromwich Albion, Wednesday’s visitors are Coventry City.
When the sides met earlier in the season, a Hardie-less Argyle lost 1-0 to a controversial Coventry goal. Ryan wants to put matters right, and believes that the trio of home games this week are opportunities to put points on the board, especially if the Green Army are in form.
“I think it's massive,” said Ryan of the week coming up. “We're going to use our crowd to our advantage, which we always do. They always drag us through.
“It's three games that we’ll look to try to pick up some points in. It's going to be an important week for us. We're looking to rest and recover from Saturday and get ready to go again Wednesday night.
“We always look at teams that are above us and look at closing in on teams rather than looking behind us.
“We set ourselves targets, and I think they've gone on a good run. The game we played them before, I was in the stands watching it, it was when I was injured. It's one that we're looking forward to and we're looking to put right the result that happened there.”
