Bolton Wanderers never saw what Plymouth Argyle did from ex-Rangers star | OneFootball

Gregg Wylde's stint with the Trotters didn't go to plan, with the Pilgrims benefiting later in his career

When Rangers fell on hard times a little over a decade ago, there were a number of players who were looking to progress their careers away from the blue half of Glasgow.

While the Ibrox outfit were forced to start life back in the fourth tier of Scottish football, players young and old sought new opportunities away from the club, with Gregg Wylde one such example.

The Scot made the move to Bolton Wanderers just a week before his 21st birthday, with the Trotters picking up a player who had featured 38 times in the league and scored twice for his boyhood side before moving south of the border.

While expectations were high after the winger’s arrival, Wanderers never got to see him in competitive action as he departed for Aberdeen 15 months after he arrived, before he reared his head back in the EFL with Plymouth Argyle two years later.

Gregg Wylde fails to make Bolton Wanderers appearance

With the club he loves on its knees, Wylde made the voluntary decision to depart Ibrox when times got tough in 2012, and thus help Rangers with their financial issues.

Compatriot Owen Coyle was only too happy to bring the forward to Bolton - who were fighting for their lives in the Premier League at the time - with his pedigree in the Scottish game seeing him catch the eye of a number of sides when he was set to leave Ibrox.

"To capture a player of Gregg Wylde's talent is a fantastic bit of business for the football club, especially given the interest that was shown in him by a number of other Premier League teams," Coyle said to The Guardian.

"He is young, quick and exciting, and has played at a very high level with Rangers, both domestically and in Europe."

Unfortunately, Wanderers fans never got the chance to see those talents in competitive action, with confirmation of Wylde’s transfer taking until the conclusion of the season to be confirmed, leaving a frustrated player waiting in the wings.

Even when he was permitted to play, Wylde had fallen down the pecking order and was instead loaned to Bury during the following campaign, with Aberdeen giving him a way out of the club when the summer came, with his move to England going disastrously wrong.

Plymouth Argyle gives Gregg Wylde EFL redemption story

From Aberdeen to St Mirren, Wylde started rebuilding his career back in his homeland, before Derek Adams and Plymouth Argyle came calling in the summer of 2015, with the Greens looking to earn promotion from League Two.

The former Ross County boss was intent on bringing a number of stars from north of the border to Home Park, and Wylde settled in Devon alongside Graham Carey, who had also been drafted in from Adams’ former side.

Right from the off, the new arrivals looked to make tier mark, as Wylde scored the first goal of Argyle’s season with a well-taken volley at the far post against AFC Wimbledon, before Carey doubled the advantage from range in the second stanza.

That wouldn’t be the last time the Dons would make a newsworthy appearance in that season, but in the interim, Wylde was proving to be a step above in the fourth tier, with his pace down the flanks proving too hot to handle for many a League Two defender.

With another strike against Portsmouth at Home Park to his name, Wylde Thing was making Argyle’s heart sing, with the Greens keeping pace with the leading pack thanks to the attacking talent they had at their disposal.

It was the return trip against Pompey that will be many of the Green Army’s abiding memory of the Scot during his first stint with Argyle though, with a late, late show seeing the most dramatic of turnarounds at Fratton Park.

Michael Smith’s first-half goal had given the hosts the advantage, and as time ticked down Argyle huffed and puffed but couldn’t land a glove on the opposition for much of the 90 minutes, until Jamille Matt beat Paul Jones to a corner to level matters with four minutes left on the clock.

Amazingly, there were still four minutes left on the clock by the time Argyle were in front, with Carey’s delivery into the penalty area being despatched by Wylde to send the travelling Janners into delirium in the away end.

The two sides would then meet again in a gargantuan tussle over two legs in the play-offs, with Peter Hartley’s winner sending the Greens to Wembley, only for those pesky Dons to get the better of them in the final.

For Wylde, it was something of a redemption story after his first stint in English football, and he would then go on to feature for Millwall and Northampton before returning to Home Park for a second sojourn later in his career.

Bolton fans will continue to be mystified by the situation surrounding the Scot, but it ultimately played into Argyle’s hands, with the winger giving the Green Army plenty of top memories during his time as a Pilgrim.