Steven Schumacher delighted with Plymouth’s win despite not playing their best

Posted Thursday, October 26, 2023 by PA

Plymouth boss Steven Schumacher was philosophical following the 3-0 home Championship victory over winless Sheffield Wednesday.

Goals from Mustapha Bundu, player of the match Morgan Whittaker and top scorer Ryan Hardie, now with six for the season, ensured Argyle moved up to 18th with their fourth home win.

Schumacher said: “Obviously delighted with the result, that is the all-important thing. We have played loads better the majority of this season and not won or got anything from the game.

“I didn’t feel as though we passed the ball anywhere near as well as we have. That’s probably credit to the opposition.

“I thought Sheffield Wednesday were really good, especially in the first half but we were clinical with our two chances late on (in the first half) and somehow managed to get ourselves into a 2-0 lead.

“It gave us something to hold on to and build from in the second half and I thought we were professional, and we did well. I am just delighted to have three points.

“I was expecting Morgan to take the free-kick but thankfully he didn’t. Mustapha stepped up and smashed it in off the crossbar.

“The goal came at a really good time for us because we had struggled through the first period and I am thinking of what to say at half-time.

“Then your team talk slightly changes because suddenly we are 2-0 up. We have to take it. It’s one of them, we can definitely play better than that but we take it going in 2-0 up at half-time.

“To get a 3-0 victory and a clean sheet at home is the main thing and we are buzzing with it.”

Winless Wednesday have now lost 10 of their opening 13 league games, with their new boss Danny Rohl suffering back-to-back defeats.

He said: “We started well and controlled the game in the first 25, 30 minutes.

“We had a lot of high ball winning situations, we created chances and had a good chance at the far post and then we got a bit unlucky. It was a great free-kick and we then made a second mistake.

“We thought if we scored the next goal, we could get back in the game. We tried everything and conceded the third goal and the match is done.

“It is hard to speak about this defeat as we wanted to earn something, this was our big goal today and it is about the result and the result was not good.

“For me, I can see a direction we want to play but it is not about 25 minutes or 60 minutes, it is about 96 minutes to go for it.

“Now it is about recovery and we must go again on Sunday. It will be a tough race until the end of the season. We have to be ready for this and the players are ready for this. We have to start taking points.

“In the second half we tried something, we changed some players to try and create more offensive pace.

“Until this moment we tried everything and in the last 25 minutes we had some good shots and at the moment, it is not turning into a goal, it is going over or wide.”