Steven Schumacher proud of record-breaking Plymouth after derby win

Posted Tuesday, November 01, 2022 by PA

Steven Schumacher expressed his delight and pride as Plymouth moved four points clear at the top of Sky Bet League One thanks to a record-breaking 4-2 derby win over Exeter.

Two goals from substitute Ryan Hardie secured a comeback win after the Grecians took the lead through Archie Collins in the first half and Sam Nombe in the second.

Morgan Whittaker cancelled out the first and Bali Mumba levelled with a 25-yard screamer before Hardie’s double strike.

Schumacher said: “That’s nine home league wins in a row which they tell me is a club record, so obviously I’m really proud of that stat. But we won’t get carried away and will work as hard as we can now to get it to 10.

“They were all good goals. I felt Bali’s goal changed the momentum of the game and we all know that Ryan is capable of getting goals when he gets in the box like that.

“It felt great to win and see our fans bouncing at the end because I know how much it means to people in this city.

“The players showed brilliant character to dig us out of a bit of a mess. Moments of quality have won us the game.

“We responded brilliantly to twice going behind and we stuck together.

“It was a good derby played in a good spirit with two teams both wanting to win.

“The resilience and determination of the players is top class, we always find ways to win.

“Because of where we are, teams come here well prepared and well organised and try and make it as hard and they can for us.

“But if our team continues to stick together like they do, with that team spirit, don’t get on each other’s backs and keep enjoying it like they do…

“They are quality players and they keep pushing each other on and long may that continue.”

Exeter boss Gary Caldwell said: “I’m never happy losing football matches but I’m really happy with how the players performed. I felt like we were in control of the game for large periods, they changed their shape to 4-4-2 and really opened the game up.

“That was the one part we could be better at, that point we could have controlled the game in the middle of the pitch with the overload we had in there and we didn’t do that and got heavily punished for it.

“Everyone put in a massive shift, but the threat we had with Jay Stansfield and Sam Nombe on the counter was exceptional.

“We scored two brilliant goals, Stanno obviously setting both of those up. And that was the game plan, we had to frustrate Plymouth and I thought we did.

“They didn’t look like they were going to play through us. They resorted to a lot of diagonal balls which we dealt with comfortably and we constantly looked a threat when we won the ball back in the middle of the pitch.

“Archie Collins was outstanding, driving forward in midfield, as was Harry Kite. So many good performances. That is a positive but also a frustration that we didn’t use that to go on and get something from the game.

“We need to manage the game better, we need to understand when we go in front how we manage the game in those moments and we didn’t do that well enough. We sat back and allowed them back into the game.”