Steven Schumacher lauds “massive win” as Plymouth overcome Oxford

Plymouth boss Steven Schumacher described their 1-0 home victory over promotion-chasing rivals Oxford as “a massive win”.

Joe Edwards volleyed the 56th-minute winner from Ryan Law’s cross, chested into the skipper’s path by striker Niall Ennis.

Argyle earlier had keeper Michael Cooper to thank for an outstanding stop to deny Gavin Whyte.

Schumacher, whose fourth-placed side are now three points adrift of top spot, said: “We knew Oxford are one of the best teams in the division.

“There’s so much firepower in their squad, they are leading goal scorers and so we knew how hard the game was going to be.

“They had two chances early on in the first half. One of them our goalkeeper has made an unbelievable save from, another one from a cross to the back post.

“After that in the second half we nullified really them to very little, controlled with possession and scored an outstanding goal ourselves so really pleased to keep a clean sheet against them but most importantly get the three points.

“I didn’t actually realise we had six clean sheets at home in a row until I was told but that’s a brilliant achievement, seven clean sheets out of eight and conceded one goal away – at Ipswich, who are flying – so we all know it’s going quite well at the moment.

“The lads are playing well, performing, putting the work rate in, putting the effort in, giving everything they have got every single week and we are getting some outstanding performances.

“That goes for the whole team today because there are so many of them who played well, especially second half.

“In the end we are just glad to come away with the win and we move on to the next one, which is a another big one away at Burton next week.”

Oxford boss Karl Robinson refused to be too despondent despite seeing his side slip outside the top six.

He said: “We were very good in the first half, by far the better team.

“But the problem is when you come away from home and even when you dominate all the aspects of the game, because their crowd was so good they probably felt like they did better than they actually did in the first half.

“It is not fine that we lost but it is not a time to be too downhearted as there is not long to go.

“Their keeper is the best in the league. We knew how good he is and it is all part of just accepting he is a good goalkeeper.

“He doesn’t just make good saves, he starts a lot of their good play, he picks the right option more often than not whether it is a quick play or slowing the game down.

“He does certain things that allows him to be a good player. I like him but there is still a lot of football to play.

“The fans clapped us at the end, these are the most ruthless lot to please, they are the best at what they do and they follow us everywhere.”