Schumacher and Whittaker Win September EFL Awards

Steven Schumacher and Morgan Whittaker have been named Sky Bet League One Manager and Player of the Month respectively.

Argyle won three of their four games in September, beating Derby County in a spectacular 3-2 victory, winning 1-0 at home against Oxford United and beating Ipswich Town 2-1 to go top of the division. In between, there was a 2-2 draw against Portsmouth in which Argyle were only seconds away from completing a 100% month.

Sky Sports EFL pundit Don Goodman said: “Plymouth were up against it multiple times in September, but still managed to come away with 10 points and that’s testament to the way Steven Schumacher has his side playing for each other.

“Twice Argyle faced a mountain to climb and twice they were able to claw back the deficit and put wins on the board.”

“Plymouth had a fantastic month as a club, and Morgan Whittaker was at the forefront of it all. He was paramount to some crucial victories for Argyle in September, including scoring two winning goals, against Oxford and Ipswich respectively.”

Whittaker scored in three of those four games, getting the first goal at Derby as the comeback began, and scoring the winners against Oxford and Ipswich. On top of that, he provided an assist for Niall Ennis’s goal against Pompey.

On winning the award, he said: “I’m really happy. I’m really grateful this has happened. Against Oxford and Ipswich my goals won the game, and against Derby I scored against my old club. All of them have different meanings, and they are all special.

“I get the credit as Player of the Month, but I can’t do what I have been doing without my teammates doing what they have been doing. It’s a collective. Hopefully we can carry it on.”

Schumacher had some words of praise for Morgan, before going on to discuss his own personal award.

“He was outstanding and played really well throughout the month,” said Schumacher, of Whittaker. “He scored some big goals for us, got a couple of assists and you can see he is growing in confidence, week in, week out. He’s playing well, and long may it continue.

“It’s been a great month. The results that we have managed to get, the performances we put in against some really, really tough teams – the lads have been outstanding to get the points we have got on the board and to get to the top of the league. This recognition of that work is appreciated.

“It hasn’t been easy. We’ve had to work really hard to get the points we’ve had. That’s not just the players on the pitch – obviously they are the main people who get all the credit and deserve all the credit – but it’s the staff, the recruitment team, the analysts, the data science department, the medical department, the performance team and us as a coaching staff.

“We try to give the players as much information as possible, then it’s over to them to go out and perform and get the results.

“It’s a team effort. I take the award and the recognition, but I couldn’t do it without everybody from top to bottom.”