Schumacher's Port Vale Reaction
A 2-0 defeat at home to Port Vale ended a series of impressive sequences for Steven Schumacher’s Plymouth Argyle.
Vale ended the Pilgrims’ nine-game winning sequence at Home Park, and became the first side to keep a clean sheet against them all season. The win for the visitors also ended a 15-game unbeaten league run that stretched back to 16 August.
Two second-half goals, both from Vale’s James Wilson, were enough for the visitors, and Schumacher conceded that Vale deserved their three points.
“We didn’t deserve anything from the game,” he said. “There are no excuses. Port Vale were the better team throughout the whole game. They started better than us and had a little bit more hunger and desire than we did.
“I’m disappointed. It hurts when you lose any game. When you haven’t lost for so long, then you forget how this feeling.
“It wasn’t quite us. We conceded two poor goals and been punished for it.
“It’s a tough one to take. It was from a set play, again, which we are not pleased about. Someone has got first contact and it looks like it hit Wilson, who was in front of the goalkeeper, and could be offside. It took a deflection and went in the goal.
“The second goal was a scruffy one when we didn’t have 11 men on the field, because the substitute wasn’t ready to go on, which we need to speak about.”
Although far from at their best, Argyle did carve out a number of excellent chances which they would expect to score from, most notable from Ryan Hardie at the end of the first half and Niall Ennis shortly after the Greens went 2-0 down.
“It’s a frustrating night all round,” said Schumacher. “We had a bit of go, second half, and had some good chances. Ryan Hardie had a great chance at 0-0, just before half-time. Niall Ennis missed a couple of good ones you would expect him to score in the form he has been in.
“I don’t think we were at it; we weren’t at our best. It didn’t look like us. When you have nights like that you need a little bit of luck or some inspiration from someone to get everyone going.
“It’s going to hurt for a few days, we are all disappointed. But we will look at the positives: we’ve gone so long unbeaten. This is the first time we haven’t scored in the league this season. We haven’t become a bad team overnight but we have to better in the next one.
“It’s not a ‘wake-up call’, but the run had to come to an end at some point. It’s come to an end here at Home Park, which we didn’t want it to, and it’s going to make us refocus and get back to basics.”
