Gareth Ainsworth is hopeful Matt Ingram will be ready for the play-offs after he was taken off injured in Saturday’s win against Northampton.

The stopper, who was making his 111th consecutive start for his hometown club, collided with Sam Wood as the left-back attempted to clear a cross but instead succeeded only in diverting it into his own net.

Ingram tried to play on but after clutching his knee and receiving a lengthy spell of treatment he was replaced by 20-year-old Alex Lynch, who made his professional debut.

Ainsworth said: “There’s no news at the moment and I’ll let my medical team, who’ve been fantastic all season, deal with that and hopefully we can get him ready for the play-offs.

“If we can’t then there will be decisions to be made and we’ll go from there. It is a cost but I know what this squad’s capable of and the mental strength they have, and I’m sure that whatever team I put out at Plymouth will be ready to take on that challenge.”

Wanderers have 45-year-old goalkeeping coach Barry Richardson and Charlie Horlock, who has recently returned from a loan spell at Hitchin Town, on their books.

Lynch, who joined the club from Peterborough last summer, was fairly untroubled at Sixfields and could do nothing about Ryan Cresswell’s equaliser six minutes from time.

“I don’t know what’s more injured at the moment, is it Matty’s knee or Alex’s nerves?” joked Ainsworth.

“We’ll have to assess both. He’s a good guy, we bought him here in the summer to develop him.

“There was no way we had any intention of sticking him in unless something happened, but he’s a footballer and he’s ready to play in any game whether it be play-off semi-finals or whatever.

“We’ll look at Matty, he’s definitely not ruled out yet and my medical team have performed wonders this season so they might have to perform one more for me.”