Steven Schumacher delighted to see Plymouth start March on a high after setbacks

Posted Sunday, March 06, 2022 by PA

Steven Schumacher was delighted to see Plymouth answer his plea for a strong start to March as they bounced back from successive defeats to beat Morecambe.

Argyle came into the game having seen their League One play-off hopes dented by losses to Cambridge and Rotherham but responded with a valuable three-point haul on Saturday.

Conor Grant opened the scoring after 14 minutes and Ryan Hardie doubled eighth-placed Argyle’s lead just before half-time with his 14th goal of the season.

Plymouth boss Schumacher said: “Really pleased with the win. It was important that we did get three points today with the two previous results.

“As we spoke about early on in the week it’s the crunch time of the season now and we wanted to start March in a positive way and thankfully we have done that.”

Playmaker Grant headed Argyle in front with a far-post header from Ryan Broom’s cross from the right.

Top scorer Hardie then made it 2-0 when he got on the end of Danny Mayor’s pinpoint cross from the left to beat Morecambe keeper Trevor Carson with a deft glancing header.

“The first goal was a lovely worked goal,” Schumacher said.

“It was a nice run from Ryan Broom to the by-line and a lovely stand-up cross. We don’t often see Conor Grant on the back stick towering above full-backs but it was a great ball and a fantastic header.

“The second goal was similar but from the other side.

“It was an unbelievable cross from Danny and Ryan is definitely claiming it. The delivery made the goal. It was a brilliant ball in by Dan, who is playing really well at the moment and Ryan will be pleased to get that one.

“We are delighted with another goal and we’ve got the win.

“We said at half-time to keep the tempo up, don’t be sloppy or give needless chances away, go and get the next goal.

“We tried but we huffed and puffed again. They had a couple of chances late on but Michael (Cooper) makes two great saves.”

Morecambe boss Derek Adams was making his return to the club he managed between 2015 and 2019 and while he was disappointed to come away empty-handed, he took plenty of positives from his side’s performance at Home Park.

He said: “It is really good to be back. We looked forward to this game and played very well today. Plymouth had the same number of shots on target and the same number of shots off target.

“The two goals we gave away were poor defensively. The first one was a cross into the box which we should have dealt better with at the back post and the other one was a free header in the box.

“But other than that, our keeper wasn’t really troubled and Michael Cooper was troubled more than our keeper today. From our point of view, it was a really positive performance.

“We should have scored in the first half and the second half and we had the better opportunities than Plymouth Argyle today.

“I am really frustrated because we had really good opportunities.

“We opened up Plymouth Argyle a number of times throughout the afternoon, we knew we would get those opportunities the way we were going to play and we certainly did that.”