Schumacher's Wycombe Preview

When Argyle won 1-0 at Wycombe Wanderers earlier this season, the joy on Steven Schumacher’s face echoed that of every Argyle fan.

It had been a while since a win against the Chairboys, but Schumacher put together a plan, and via Sam Cosgrove’s early goal, brought three points back from Buckinghamshire.

Now, the task is a little different. Argyle will be at home when Gareth Ainsworth’s side are the visitors on Thursday night, 29 December, and Wanderers arrive in decent form, seventh in the league and armed with the knowledge that Argyle have not beaten Wycombe at home since 2004.

“It’s a different game; a different test,” said Schumacher. “We’re going to have to be ready for it. At Wycombe we spoke about what we had learned from previous seasons, getting beaten there convincingly, and we felt we had to do something different, which we did. It worked, and it came off.

“This game will be slightly different. We’re at home, on our pitch, which is bigger than their pitch, and we want to implement our style and put our stamp on the game, which means passing the ball. It’s important we try to do that; to play at a tempo and with a bit of excitement that another sell-out crowd can get behind and make some noise.”

As Schumacher states, home tickets for the game have sold out, and with the game against MK Dons is rapidly heading the same way, the boss is grateful to the faithful support shown by the Green Army this season.

“The support is greatly appreciated,” he said. “[Because of] the performances the lads have been putting in, people want to come and watch. That’s brilliant, and it’s important that our ground is full for a number of reasons. Everyone needs to understand that the games we get here are not foregone conclusions. We’ve been so strong at home, but it doesn’t happen automatically. We don’t just turn up and it’s an easy game.

“Our fans make a big, big impact for us. Getting behind us from the very start, getting the noise going, making it intimidating for the opposition to play in, and encouraging our players, all make a big difference.”

Wycombe have been in good form of late, winning four of their last six games, with just one defeat, and have conceded just two goals in that period.

This has taken them to the periphery of the play-offs, following their sixth-place finish last season.

“They are in very good form,” said Schumacher. “Better form than we played there. They had a few injuries before we played them, but they seem to have their full-strength team back.

“Wycombe make it tough for teams all the time. They’ve got really good attacking players who can score goals out of nothing. We’re not expecting anything different from Wycombe. It’s going to be a physical game, and one we are going to have to be ready for, to compete with them, and try to play our football where we can and cause them problems.

“They will have watched us and seen how well we’ve been doing here, and will know they are not in for an easy game either.”