Steven Schumacher's Wembley Preview

Sunday has the potential to be one of the best days of Steven Schumacher’s professional career.

And he can see it all.

“My wife goes on a lot to me about positive visualisation,” he said. “I've done it all. I've walked out the tunnel, I've celebrated in front of the fans. I've walked up the steps, I've lifted the trophy, I've got drunk in the dressing room. I've done everything.”

The opportunity to make dreams a reality takes place on Sunday afternoon, when Schumacher’s Argyle and Bolton Wanderers contest the Papa Johns Trophy final at Wembley Stadium.

Nearly six weeks have elapsed since a final berth was confirmed by virtue of a tense semi-final win, via a penalty shoot-out, against Cheltenham Town.

In the meantime, the Greens have continued a promotion push in Sky Bet League One, and going into the weekend, they remain on top of the division.

Inevitably, among ticket sales, media attention and the mountains of preparation that goes into any Wembley occasion, the final has pervaded thoughts. However, now that it is on the horizon, Schumacher has welcomed a chance to prepare in as regular fashion as is possible.

“It isn't a normal game,” said Schumacher. “You can't pretend that it is. There's a lot of stuff that goes on on the outside that's different.

“Sorting tickets out, travel arrangements, loads of family going: the stuff on the outside of the football is quite intense. I want to give [assistant club secretary] Ellen Shine a big shout out because she's been absolutely incredible the last few weeks trying to help everybody out.

“She's a diamond. She's looked after everyone; she took care of all the noise.

“But the football preparation is the same. We've gone through the same routine, the same sort of detail that we give the players for every league game. It's somebody we know a lot in Bolton Wanderers. We’ve played twice already this season.

“They’re a really good team, and we need to give the players the information that we would for a league game. We can't just say: ‘oh, it's a final, let's just go and enjoy it.’ We need to be prepared as best as we can.

“Not having a game at the weekend was probably a good thing. We had a couple of niggles and knocks leading into the Accrington game, so having that free weekend gave everybody a chance to recover.

“Training this week's being good. We've had an extra day for preparation because we're playing on a Sunday. It's felt quite relaxed, but the lads are focused and looking sharp in the training sessions. We had an in-house game on Tuesday, which was really good.

“Today, it’s been lovely and wet and raining down there, so the ball was zipping about a bit and then we finish the preparation off on Saturday.

“I can't wait. I’ve been excited for ages now. Everyone's really looking forward to it. Since we got through in the semi-final against Cheltenham, it's been in the back of our minds.

“The preparation this week's been great; the excitement's building. Everyone in the city's looking forward to it. Roll on Sunday.”

Schumacher’s only visit as a player offered him mixed emotions. He was a Fleetwood Town player when they reached the League Two play-off final in 2014, and despite having played the two semi-finals, Schumacher watched the final from the Wembley bench, never coming on the field. His pleasure at Fleetwood’s promotion – via a goal from former Pilgrim Antoni Sarcevic – was slightly tempered by his personal experience.

Schumacher has promised to take what he learned that day and use it to assist him, as his faces perhaps the trickiest task of the preparation phase: telling some players that they will not be involved in the game.

He told Argyle TV: “I had one opportunity [to play at Wembley]. I was part of the squad and was on the bench. I managed to be on the winning team even though I didn't enter the field, which was big disappointment. I'm still delighted that we got the job done.

“Having an opportunity to go there now as a manager, it's just brilliant. I hope it's not the last opportunity that I will get either, because there's no better place to play than the home of football.

“I have to make sure I'm clear in my decision making. I know it's not going to be easy telling people that who are not in the starting 11 and the worst part is going to be telling those who miss out on the squad. That's really difficult.

“I’ll just stress to them that I've been where they've sat. If they get some bad news, that disappointment, it's not taken lightly by myself, so hopefully they can accept it.

“What's a good thing about it is, it’s not the last game of the season. There's still eight more ‘cup finals’ to go. One of them could be the hero.”

On Friday, Bolton announced ticket sales had surpassed 34,000, and when added to Argyle’s haul, which travelled past the 38,000 mark earlier in the week, means a bumper crowd awaits under the arch.

The support of the Green Army is something that has long delighted Schumacher, but even he had an extra glint in his eye when he did another spot of visualising – that of seeing half of Wembley packed full of green and white.

“It's outstanding,” he said. “It just blows your mind, doesn't it? Every single week, whether that is traveling away from home to support us, selling out at home and for us to sell 38-and-a-half thousand tickets at this stage, it's just phenomenal.

“It's more than Bolton Wanderers, who are a former Premier League club. You hear the pundits say ‘one of the big boys in the division’ – well we’ve dwarfed their numbers. It shows how good our fans are.

“We've got the best fans in the country and hopefully we can put on a performance as a team that they can be proud of.”