Birmingham City (A) | Schumacher's Reaction

For the second week running a late winner broke Argyle hearts as the Greens lost 2-1 at Birmingham City on Saturday.

Following last Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at home to Southampton, in which the Saints scored late on, the theme was repeated as Jay Stansfield scored deep into injury time to give Birmingham a win they scarcely could have expected given the game’s flow.

Blues scored early via Scott Hogan, but Argyle had most of the play, equalised via Ryan Hardie in the second half and seemingly looked the more likely to go on and win the game, if anyone would.

However, former Exeter City man Stansfield scored a stunning winner; stunning in more ways than one.

For manager Steven Schumacher, the manner and timing of the defeat, following similar seven days earlier, seemed to hurt the most.

“I don't think we deserved that from the game,” he told Argyle TV, “but I'm conscious that I don't want to stand here every week and say we played really well and got beaten.

“It's doing my head in. We probably made two mistakes throughout the whole of the game and we got punished both times. That shows the level that we're at. It's something I'm going to have to learn from quickly.

“I was disappointed with their [first] goal. I felt it was a foul. Hogan's pushed Scarrsy with his full forearm in the back. There's enough contact to send Scarrsy off balance. We can argue maybe Dan's got to be a bit stronger, but I still think it's a foul. It's given most times.

“There's a few things that went against us. The first goal was a blow, but again, we responded really well to it and felt we were the best team going into the second half at the end of the first half.

“At half-time, we said to continue to do what we're doing because we're going to cause them problems.

“You'll get a chance - and we did. Ryan gets another goal and we’re back in the game.

“I think they responded quite well themselves, they had a little spell for five minutes after our goal, but I felt we look like the most like a team to win it.

“We felt we had control of the game. We said that we wanted that a little bit more this week. Watford and Southampton had a lot of possession and made us work really hard, and we wanted to do the same to Birmingham today. I thought we did that; I thought we controlled the ball. We moved the ball really well, got into really good areas on the pitch and created some great chances.

“I think we had more shots than them, more shots on target and I thought we were a better team.

“But it's no good being a better team and getting beaten. It's not a good trait to have.”