Steven Schumacher hails ‘massive’ win for Plymouth

Posted Sunday, December 03, 2023 by PA

Plymouth boss Steven Schumacher was delighted with his side as they fought back to beat Stoke 2-1 thanks to a last-minute winner by substitute Adam Randell.

The Plymouth-born 23-year-old celebrated his 100th Argyle appearance by scoring in the seventh and final minute of stoppage time after Ciaran Clark cleared Luke Cundle’s shot off the line.

Mustapha Bundu’s 43rd-minute near-post strike had earlier cancelled out Tyrese Campbell’s 23rd- minute opportunist opener for Stoke.

Schumacher said: “We got the three points, six from the week and we’re up to 16th and everyone can see how tight it is, so it was massive we got the win.

“From our point of view it’s a brilliant feeling – we have been on the wrong end of the last kick of the game twice this season.

“It’s a killer when it happens to you so we are delighted to get the three points, we are buzzing for our fans to celebrate like that at the death, to celebrate a goal from a local lad at the Devonport End.

“Obviously you feel a little bit for (Stoke boss) Alex (Neil) and their team because they have worked so hard today and probably thought they had a point in the bag.

“But they haven’t and we go on and we’ve won the game so I am really pleased.

“It’s the worse feeling in football when that happens, especially when you feel you’ve played well like we did at Birmingham and against Southampton, and they scored with pretty much the last kick of the game.

“It’s cruel but that’s football. It’s important whether you are up in the game or drawing that you keep going until the very end and so pleased for our players that we did because second half I thought we played really well.

“I felt we were really positive, tried to keep to our style of play and eventually got our rewards.”

Stoke boss Neil said: “It is game management. I didn’t think we deserved to lose the game. Towards the later embers of the game some of our decision making was really poor.

“But that was as many clear-cut chances we have had in a while. If we take a little bit of care, the game could have been done at half-time.

“They (Plymouth) played some nice stuff, they were good in spells but we were a lot more threatening, if you look at the quality of chances we had. The game was there to be won and it is cruel at the end.

“We gave a cheap free-kick away which is unnecessary, the lad was going nowhere and there was a great opportunity to clear our lines and we scuffed it.
“The ball lands in the middle of the pitch and we don’t see that phase of play out.

“We should have cleared the ball, but we need to make sure we make clean contact in the dying embers of the game.

“We needed to make sure they work extremely hard for them to score the next goal and be hard to beat.

“That is something three games ago we had, that is the biggest frustration. We kept four clean sheets on the bounce before these last three games.

“And in those last three games, we have conceded goals in the late parts of the game, especially when we have the opportunity to clear the ball. It is not a hard thing to do.”