Schumacher's Accrington Preview

After the wild scenes of Tuesday night against Sheffield Wednesday, Argyle manager Steven Schumacher has tried to relax his squad, before he builds them back up again for Saturday’s next test.  

Accrington Stanley, ninth in Sky Bet League One are the visitors, which gives an extra interest to the game for assistant manager Mark Hughes and midfielder Matt Butcher, both former Stanley players.

“The focus for the last two days has been recovery,” Schumacher told Argyle TV. “The Sheffield Wednesday game was quite an intense game, so we’ve been trying to get everybody back, recovered and healthy. Now preparations have started on Accrington.

“We need to be in the best prepared state we can be, and be ready for another tough game.

“There’s a little bit of a connection. Mark Hughes used to be at Accrington, Matt Butcher we brought from Accrington this summer.

“You can gain an insight into how their manager thinks, how they may set their team up and what their players are good at. It could give us some information you might not necessarily know if you are from the outside, so it is important to use those people who have those contacts and can give you a little bit of info – as much information that you can get, the better. It just makes you more prepared.”

Accrington boss John Coleman is the definition of a club legend. In his second stint as manager, having taken charge of well over 1000 games and having masterminded the club’s rise from non-league football.

Schumacher, from the same neck of the woods, is understandably respectful of the achievements of the man who will occupy Home Park’s away dugout this weekend.

“I’ve known John a long time,” said Schumacher. “He’s brilliant. And Jimmy Bell, too, his assistant. All the coaching staff have been there a while, they are all Scousers, from the same town as me, in Kirkby. He does an unbelievable job at Accrington, always has done. He gets his team playing an attractive style of football and always make them competitive. They work incredibly hard for each other on limited resources.

“They’ve had a brilliant start. They are ninth in the table and have won their last three. They’ve got some good players. They are always difficult to play against with the way they play, the way they mark you.

“[Accrington doing well] might surprise other people who don’t know them, but if you know who the characters are and know what that club is about then you shouldn’t be surprised about how well they always do.”