Schumacher's Carabao Reaction

On a night where Argyle lost 2-0 to Peterborough United and exited the Carabao Cup, it would be natural to expect manager Steven Schumacher to be despondent.

However, while by no means jubilant to have made an early exit from the first cup competition of the season, he found lots of reasons to be upbeat from the game.

The focus was on three players: defender Nigel Lonwijk, making a stylish debut; Jack Endacott, a 17-year-old also on debut, belying his tender years; and Brendan Galloway, playing competitively for the first time since a knee injury in November.

“There were loads and loads of positives,” said Schumacher, on Argyle TV.

“Brendan Galloway – how good was that to see him back on the pitch? To play 65, 70 minutes having not played for long. Just to have him about us, and to perform to the level that he can, is brilliant.

“He did brilliantly for us at the start of last season. He was a real fans favourite – he was our favourite as well! It was hard for Macaulay Gillesphey to get in the team because of how well Brendan was playing. Unfortunately, he had a horrific injury, and Macaulay stepped up.

“To have the two of them available, the fans will be made up because we have real competition. It’s been a long journey for him, and I thought he played really well.

“Young Jack Endacott was outstanding. He played 90 minutes, and was knackered at the end, full of cramp, but he did himself proud. His family will be proud as well.

"I thought he was brilliant. He spoke about David Ajiboye at the start of the game, and said: ‘he’s really quick, Jack, give yourself a yard and defend properly against him’. He raced him at one point and Jack beat him!

“For someone so young, he has trained with us throughout pre-season, and did great.  He has found himself in the right place at the right time. Two left wing-backs have gone down injured, and Bali Mumba had a bit of a dead leg from the weekend. We said: ‘Jack, you’re in’ and he wasn’t fazed by it. He got on with it, showed some real quality. A couple of mistakes, but that’s understandable, he’s a young boy.

“Nigel had his debut for us, and was brilliant. Again, cramping up at the end, but that is to be expected. It is why this game was good for us, to get 90 minutes into his legs. Really positive out of him as well.”

Those performances were obvious highlights, but no manager will ever be satisfied with a defeat, and the 2-0 reverse, with goals from Ricky-Jade Jones and Joe Taylor sending Peterborough through to round two, seems avoidable given how dominant Argyle were in the second half.

Many chances were created, but none taken, and precious few were on target. Posh took theirs, and advanced.

“The negatives: the first half performance, especially the first 35 minutes,” said Schumacher. “Six changes, people haven’t played, maybe that’s the reason behind it. We were a bit slow, didn’t pass the ball forward enough. We were too negative. It was too easy for Peterborough to play against us.

“After about 35 minutes we got better. We put Luke [Jephcott] into number nine and put Niall Ennis as one of the number 10s.

“We had a three-v-two chance where we should have got a shot off, and a four-v-four opportunity where we should have done better.

“In the second half, we asked them to play at a better tempo, to be a bit more aggressive when we haven’t got the ball, and show a bit of energy. Second half we did that, and I thought we were loads better.”