Preston North End (H) Hardie's Reaction
Ryan Hardie reached a milestone in the game against Preston North End on Saturday, becoming the 71st player in Argyle history to reach 200 appearances.
Hardie’s first was in January 2020, when he was on loan from Blackpool. He came off the bench and scored within five minutes, in a 3-0 win at Carlisle United, in Sky Bet League Two.
Indeed, Hardie scored in his first three games, and did enough in his loan spell to earn a permanent move to the South West. He has now scored 62 goals, achieved two promotions, and endeared himself forever to the Green Army.
“It's a massive achievement,” said Hardie. “I never imagined I would play 200 games, after coming for six months on loan.
“We’ve had promotions; we came from League Two to the Championship, and that’s an achievement that will live with me forever.
“Getting to 200, it’s a big number. We’ll see how many more we can get and keep trying to climb the leaderboards in the all-time list.
“It's been so easy for me [because of the fans]. It definitely doesn't feel like it's my fifth season here; it's flown by. When we’re doing well and the crowd are behind you, it makes it a lot easier.
“I say a special thanks to them, and I try to repay the faith they show in me, every week, by continuing to score some goals.
“It’s something I'm definitely proud of, my family’s proud of, to have pulled this shirt on 200 times. It is a special occasion for me.
“But, we wanted to get the three points and it's not happened, so it puts a bit of a dampener on it.”
Hardie speaks of the fact that his 200th game was a 1-0 home defeat to Preston, in which Liam Millar’s goal late in the first half meant Argyle fell to a fourth home defeat in a row.
In a game of precious few chances, a Hardie incursion into the box, latching onto a Joe Edwards header, ended with the Scotsman falling to the ground under a challenge. The penalty shout, late in the match, was waved away.
“Joey’s headed it inside and I got in between the two defenders,” said Ryan, recalling the incident. “I touched it past one of their legs and felt contact.
“In my opinion, it’s as clear a penalty as you can get. I’ve not seen it back and I’ve not seen the ref’s angle. It’s frustrating one for me personally. It would've given us a chance to get back in the game.
“It was tight through the game. There were limited chances for us and limited chances for them. It was obviously frustrating, as a striker getting few chances on goal.
“We’ve got to find better solutions to the problems that we are facing. We've got to find a way to get some chances and score some goals again.”
Argyle are not in action next weekend, as an international window takes place, and Hardie sees the gap in fixtures as both a positive and a negative.
He said: “It is a bit of a reset, but it's also frustrating, because we want to put right what's happened in the last few weeks. We want to get it straight into the next game and try to get three points to push back up the table again.
“We just want to get at it next week. It is a bit of a frustrating time for the break to come, but we can use it as a mental reset and get ready to go again and hammer the run-in.”
