He might have not been on the pitch to help Wanderers beat Plymouth Argyle in the play-off semi-final second leg on Thursday night, but Gareth Ainsworth says an “amazingly unselfish decision” by Steven Craig helped his side get to Wembley.
The striker had scored five days earlier as the Chairboys left Home Park with a 3-2 victory but he was substituted minutes after his second half goal, having tweaked his hamstring.
Ainsworth told the assembled media in his post match conference at Adams Park that the 34-year-old had not wanted to cheat his teammates by taking to the pitch when he was not in a fit state to do so.
“I want to mention Steve Craig as well because he made an incredibly brave decision tonight to say ‘gaffer I’m not ready to play tonight’ in what would have been one of the most important games of his career,” said the Wycombe manager.
“He said ‘I won’t do the lads a disservice’ so for a 34-year-old [to do that] is an amazingly unselfish decision that helped us get to Wembley.”
Craig, whose cooly taken finish against Plymouth in the first leg was his 100th career goal, had started Wanderers’ last five matches, having previously been used mainly from the substitutes bench in his 35 appearances this season.
The Scotsman was in the stands alongside teammate Matt Ingram to watch Wycombe make it to Wembley at Adams Park, and the forward tweeted his delight at seeing the team, who had handed him a signed photo to mark his career milestone before the match, make it into the League Two play-off final.
What a feeling we are going to Wembley and a massive thanks to staff/boys who presented this to me before the game 👍 pic.twitter.com/wDhFldSCYn
— steven craig (@stefcraig) May 15, 2015
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