Is He The One That Got Away?

Plymouth Argyle are sitting proudly on the top of the League One table, and one of the influencing factors behind their improved form is former Blue James Wilson!

He played just  40 times for Town before the big clear-out saw him shown the exit door. The question is, was this a mistake? Of all the players who were sent packing by Ipswich manager Paul Cook, he was the one who I least expected to leave. I thought he hardly put a foot wrong but of course, we don’t know what he was like off the field because that sort of thing stays firmly behind closed doors.

He began his career at Portman Road by signing a short-term contract until the 1st of January, 2020 but after making just eight for the club and impressing in all of them, he signed an 18-month extension in October 2019, which kept him at the club until 2021.

In his first season in a Town shirt, he made 31 appearances for the Blues, scoring twice against Accrington Stanley and a week later against his former club Lincoln City. I always viewed him as a solid enough central defender, and Wilson’s impressive performances got him the Ipswich Player of the Year award in 2021! What was even more remarkable was that he missed a fair chunk of that season due to a knee injury, which had kept him out of action for around four months.

On 10 May 2021, Ipswich announced that Wilson would be released following the end of his contract with the club, and in came The Pilgrims. He seems to have slotted in perfectly into his new home. At 32, he is a very experienced centre-back and we will see on Saturday, when we visit Plymouth, just why he has kept his place in their team. As a unit, they seem very compact at the back and have lots of goals in their team – scoring just three goals less than us but giving away less than a goal a game.

Plymouth have lost only once this season after 15 matches, and that was a 2-0 away loss to Rotherham United, so we know that the game on Saturday will be a big test for everyone. The former Welsh international will have something to prove, and whether Macauley Bonne & Co can prize open their defence – whilst we keep ours intact, might just determine who wins this encounter.