Injury-hit Pilgrims make it six out of six
PLYMOUTH Argyle made it six consecutive League One victories and clean sheet at Home Park with a 1-0 win against fellow promotion contenders Oxford United.
Pilgrims’ boss Steven Schumacher described that run of results at the Theatre of Greens as ‘a brilliant achievement’.
Argyle stayed in fourth position in the table after their 14th win out of 21 home league games this season, five points clear of fifth-placed Sheffield Wednesday, who grabbed a last gasp goal in a 2-1 defeat of AFC Wimbledon at Hillsborough.
Sunderland are sixth after another very late goal to beat Gillingham 1-0 at the Stadium of Light while Oxford dropped to seventh, outside the play-off positions and eight points behind the Pilgrims.
Schumacher said: “It was a massive win. We knew that Oxford are one of the best teams in the division with so much firepower in their squad and the leading goalscorers.
“We knew how hard the game was going to be. They had two chances early on in the first half - our goalkeeper (Mike Cooper) has made an unbelievable save from one of them and there was another from a cross at the back post.
“In the second half we nullified them really to very little, controlled the game with possession and scored an outstanding goal ourselves, so really pleased to keep a clean sheet against them and most importantly we get the three points.”
Argyle’s winning goal came in the 56th minute when Joe Edwards scored his fifth goal of the season.
The right wing-back was inside the Oxford box when the ball dropped to him after striker Niall Ennis chested down a cross from Ryan Law and he crashed the ball past goalkeeper Simon Eastwood.
Schumacher said: “It started with James Wilson at the right side centre-back. He played a couple of real long passes in the first five, 10 minutes of the game.
“We just asked him to play the next couple a bit shorter, to try and get us a little bit of control in the game. He has played a lovely ball into Jordan (Houghton) who played a nice forward into the strikers and we switched the play.
“Ryan Law is where he’s supposed to be, put a lovely cross in and it’s one wing-back crossing into the other wing-back who volleys it in the top corner, so a brilliant goal.
“We knew the game was going to be that tight. It would probably take a moment of magic from someone to unlock the door and thankfully it was us.”
Schumacher added: “The gameplan was to be organised out of possession, try and force Oxford into areas that we wanted them to go, and then pose them a threat with the ball as well.
“Even though they are the leading goalscorers in the division, they have conceded the most out of the top 10 so we felt if we could create chances then there might be opportunities for us.”
Oxford were angered when they were not awarded a penalty shortly after the half-hour mark as Law bundled over Gavin Whyte.
Referee Ollie Yates immediately pointed to the spot but then noticed an offside flag had been raised and gave Argyle a free-kick instead, much to the annoyance of the visitors.
Schumacher said: “I haven’t seen the replay back yet but I just saw the linesman put his flag up really early so I was quite calm.
“Even before Lawsy made contact the flag was up. I don’t which player he flagged offside, whether he got mixed up or what I don’t know I haven’t seen it, but they weren’t happy, that’s probably understandable.
“There was one down the other end where Eastwood comes out of his box and it hits his shoulder and then his arm. Maybe it stops Jordon Garrick getting it.
“It’s football, it’s happens. Sometimes you get decisions for you, sometimes you don’t.”
The last time that Argyle conceded a goal at Home Park was when they lost 1-0 to table-topping Rotherham United on February 26.
Since then the Pilgrims have turned the stadium into a fortress by winning six straight games, all with clean sheets.
Schumacher said: “It’s a brilliant achievement. It’s seven clean sheets out of eight. We have conceded one goal away at Ipswich Town, who are flying.
“We all know that it’s going quite well at the moment. The lads are playing well, they are performing, putting the workrate in, giving everything they have got every single weeks.
“We are getting some outstanding performances. I can go through the whole team today. There were so many of them that played well, especially second half.
“In the end, we are just glad to come away with the win and we move on to the next one, which is another big one away at Burton next week.”
Argyle have five more games to play before the end of the season four of them against sides currently in the top eight - but they could not have hoped for a better start to April.
Schumacher said: “Three points, a clean sheet and we roll on. We move on to Burton, we try and get another win there and see where it takes us.”