Western Morning News (Saturday)
Argyle ready for final play-off push
PLYMOUTH Argyle are going to have to work ‘incredibly hard’ over the final six games of their League One campaign to clinch a play-off spot, Steven Schumacher has declared.
The fourth-placed Pilgrims are already on 74 points from 40 games, which is usually enough to get into the play-offs.
However, such is the strength of the sides at the top end of the table that 80 points-plus is likely to be needed to ensure a top six finish.
Argyle have a tough run-in, with five of their remaining six fixtures against teams who are eighth or above.
That includes the visit of fifthplaced Oxford United to a packed Home Park today, with all tickets sold out for home sections of the stadium.
Schumacher said: “March was a great month, we all thought that we played really well. We picked up some huge points that we needed to do.
“We knew that April was going to be a tough month with the fixtures that we have got, starting with Oxford United who are a top team and it should be a great game.”
He went on: “Seventy-four points is usually on average enough to get into the play-offs. This year will be different because of how strong the top half of the division is.
“The bottom teams are struggling to get any sort of wins or points on board so it’s going to mean that we are going to have to work incredibly hard over the next six games to get as many points as required to finish in the place where we want to go.”
Five of the current top 10 in the table are former Premier League clubs so Argyle have been mixing it with some big hitters.
Schumacher said: “When we saw the teams that were going to be playing in League One at the start of the season everyone said ‘That’s going to be tough, it’s going to be competitive.’
“That’s how it has proved to be. We had aspirations to finish as high up as possible, improve on last year’s performance when we finished 18th.
“We have gone above and beyond that. We have been absolutely outstanding. We have been in the top six throughout pretty much the whole season, and competed with all those big clubs we spoke about at the start of the season.
“We have been a match for all of them. Okay, we haven’t got results against every one of them but we have been in the games.
“As a club, we wanted to improve and we have certainly done it.
“We are not just going to say ‘Oh, well done, we have finished now’. We are going to go as hard as we possibly can over the next six to finish in those places where the end of the season will be exciting.”
Argyle had been on a run of six consecutive victories and clean sheets until losing 1-0 away to Ipswich Town last Saturday, when they were well below their best after a gruelling schedule of games.
Schumacher said: “We gave the players the day off on Monday, I felt it was important. It was a tough slog throughout March, it was seven games in 22 days.
“We had a great run and picked up loads of points so I felt it was a good time to let them have a little bit of time off at home, go and see their families wherever up and down the country.
“We came in on Tuesday and spoke about the game at Ipswich briefly. We all recognised that we probably weren’t good enough, didn’t get to the standards we had, and the reasons for that.
“They were all fit and ready to go on Tuesday. We had a nice, sharp intense session and they have been good. It’s nice sometimes to be able to plan in a clear week because you can do a little bit more work.
“You can practice things, rather than just talking about stuff because you can actually get out on the grass.”
Oxford will arrive at Home Park as the top scorers in League One with 74 goals from 39 games, and have netted four times in three of the last seven matches.
Schumacher said: “It’s a huge game, Oxford are directly behind us, five points behind with one extra game to play.
“They will be desperate to close that gap and we are desperate to keep them away from us. It’s going to be an exciting game.
“Oxford are the leading goalscorers in the division so we know what we are going to be up against.
“But we know that with our fans behind we can cause anyone a threat here at Home Park and we are looking to try and go and get the win.”