Schumacher's Promotion Reaction

Steven Schumacher has achieved a promotion in his first full season as a football manager.

That is some achievement, for anyone. For us, as a football club, how sweet that he achieved it with us. And it is even more sweet that he has taken Plymouth Argyle into his heart – the pride with which he spoke when declaring his happiness, after the game, will enrapture every Argyle fan the world over.

Not that they need any more enrapturing, after a day in which Niall Ennis’s goal gave Argyle a 1-0 victory and confirmed the Pilgrims’ return to the Sky Bet Championship after an absence of 13 years.

“It makes me feel immensely proud of the work that I put in every single day since I retired and started coaching,” he said. “It's relentless. I know I bore my missus, and I know my kids sometimes get a little bit frustrated with me cause I'm always on the laptop. But I just feel as though you've got to do the work.

“You've got to put the hours in because if you do, you get your rewards.

“To be the manager now of Argyle, and as a coach, two promotions here. It's absolutely unbelievable. It's a brilliant achievement and I'm so proud that we've managed to do it at this great club because there's no better place to be for your first job as a manager and for us to get this club back into the Championship.

“I'm just delighted.  It's the best feeling ever. It doesn't get any better than that. I think, throughout the whole of the season, we've played so well. We've been so consistent. The performances at Home Park in particular have been outstanding and every single week, these players and this staff, we've given absolutely everything that we possibly could.

“They've all worked so hard to achieve this and now everybody in the stadium, everyone in the city, can go and enjoy the next few weeks, party hard, especially this weekend, and then get ready to go again on Sunday to hopefully win the league.”

Schumacher’s ethos throughout the season has been the ensure perfect preparation for games, but his own personal build-up to the game was a little out of the ordinary.

He will not mind, though. He is the leader of a group pf players that consistently defied odds, silenced naysayers and shown extraordinary talent and mental strength to top the division after 45 games.

“I woke up at 2.45am, couldn't get back to sleep,” said Schumacher. “I went downstairs, watched Netflix for a couple of hours, and went back to bed at five. I was up at half seven to take my lad because he had a cup final today, which he lost.

“Everyone was asking me before the game: ‘How are you feeling Gaffer?’ I felt quite calm. I wasn't overly nervous because I just said to the players that if we performed to the level that they have been doing - we've been so good lately - then we'd have enough, and thankfully we did.

“The whole atmosphere, throughout the whole season and today in particular, it was just outstanding. The Janner song at the start literally put the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. We're just so pleased that we could do this job, it’s what we wanted to do for our fans who have been incredible home and away all season.

“Today, we've got our rewards. We've managed to get ourselves into the Championship, which is where we all wanted to get to. We all dreamed of getting there - and nobody else gave us a chance. But we knew within our group, with how well we did last season, if we stuck together, added and recruited really well, which we did, then we'd have a chance to compete again. And that's what we've done.

“Now we've done it, we’re in the Championship and we can't wait.”