Schumacher’s pole position
TITLE PLANNED LAST SUMMER!
PORT VALE 1
Plant 3
PLYMOUTH 3
Randell 34, Edwards 38, Azaz 61
STEVEN SCHUMACHER reckons Plymouth’s League One title charge began immediately after last season’s final-day disappointment.
Argyle clinched top spot and passed the 100-point mark with victory at Port Vale yesterday, Adam Randell, Joe Edwards and Finn Azaz scoring after James Plant had given the home side an early lead.
Having missed out on the play-offs 12 months ago, Schumacher and his men ended the current campaign by parading the trophy.
And the Plymouth boss insists it was down to the hard work that began last summer.
He said: “This means the world to us. We’ve fought so hard week in, week out, since the last day of last season when we just fell short of the play-offs.
“The work got going straight away - the next week we were onto it and we felt we could mount another challenge.
“Everybody to a man, all the staff, all the players, everybody, has given everything they’ve got and we’ve managed to become champions - and we deserve it.”
He added: “I honestly couldn’t be any prouder, to be the leader of this club. I’m so proud and honoured to have my name etched in history. Just to get a promotion would have been OK, but we’re going up as champions with 101 points. We’ve all worked incredibly hard and we deserve our moment.”
Referring to his team’s 4-0 EFL Trophy final drubbing by Bolton last month, Schumacher added: “I’ve enjoyed absolutely every minute of this season, even in our dark days, none more so than at Wembley when I felt like the world was going to end.
“I’ve enjoyed it because you learn from those experiences, and then today I felt we did learn a little bit from it. Even though we lost an early goal the team didn’t panic and that’s what I’m so proud of.
“We spoke about those moments and if it went against us to just reset, refocus and not chase the game.
“We told them, ‘Just believe in yourselves and you will get the job done in the end’.”
Schumacher believes the tone for the season was set in September when Argyle recovered to win at Derby after trailing 2-0.
He said: “It all started away at Derby County, I think that was the first time we were behind, 2-0 down at half-time and came back. From that moment on we thought we could go to these big clubs and we would be fine.
“It doesn’t matter what type of setbacks we have, we’ve stuck together as a team, kept believing in ourselves and kept trying to play the football we know we can.”