Plymouth boss Steven Schumacher relieved to have seen off Shrewsbury

Posted Sunday, February 13, 2022 by PA

Plymouth boss Steven Schumacher praised his players after they edged past stubborn Shrewsbury 1-0 to move into the League One play-off places.

One moment of magic unlocked the resolute visiting defence with Luke Jephcott’s cross from the right fired home first time by Conor Grant after 62 minutes.

Victory was Argyle’s third in a row in the league and leaves them six points off an automatic promotion place.

Schumacher said: “I am really pleased. Obviously we knew before the game it was going to be a really tough game.

“Shrewsbury are well organised, a hard team to break down as they showed today.

“They have only lost one game of the last 10 so we knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

“It was going to be one of those where one goal was going to win it and thankfully it was our goal.

“We started quite well, we moved the ball quite well and caused them problems for 20-25 minutes.

“We lost our head of steam before half-time so we went in a little bit frustrated.

“At half-time we said to the players we are not going to panic, keep doing the right things, keep trying to move the ball as quick as possible and then we might get one chance so it’s important that we take it.

“And then they have to come out of their shape a bit and then the game starts to open up.

“It was a good goal. They are a good defensive unit Shrewsbury.

“We made a couple of nice moves in the first half and another couple in the second and Conor produced one moment of quality that everyone was relieved to see go in.

“It was a great finish by Conor. He’s got a lovely left foot, good timing and he strikes the ball well.”

Shrewsbury boss Steve Cotterill was left to rue missed chances.

He said: “I thought we played OK. There were enough chances and half chances to score a goal.

“Their goal was only a half chance and we got the wrong side of him which shouldn’t happen. That is something on the edge of the box that we normally gobble up and have done probably ever since I have been here.

“We haven’t been done with many goals like that, so there is disappointment at the goal because all of a sudden it gives them a pick-up and their crowd get a little bit more buoyant and the longer the game had gone on, they would have become the nervous ones. In fact they were the nervous ones even at 1-0 up.

“But we need to take our chances. We can’t keep creating chances like we created.

“We created far more chances in the home game against them than they created today, yet they take their chances and we never took ours in the home game and never took them here either.”