Steven Schumacher hails much-changed Plymouth side after win over Leyton Orient

By Sports Desk August 08, 2023

Plymouth boss Steven Schumacher was delighted with his “refreshed” side as they beat Leyton Orient 2-0 to win through to the EFL Cup second round.

Argyle’s two-goal cup hero was New Zealand international Ben Waine, who made up for having an early effort ruled out for offside by scoring in the 25th and 38th minutes.

Schumacher said: “We played some really exciting football in the first half and my only criticism is we didn’t get another goal but credit to Orient, they had a right good go in the second half.

“It’s objective achieved because we wanted to get into the next round.

“I thought it was important to freshen the team up from Saturday because Saturday took a lot out of everyone so to make 10 changes and still have that level of performance was brilliant.

“In the first half in particular we showed some real bits of quality, passed the ball really well, created loads of good chances and looked quick on the break.

“Second half we were a little bit scruffy with the ball but credit to them, Leyton Orient came after us a little bit, had nothing to lose. It fizzled out in the end but 2-0, clean sheet, loads of positives and we are in the next round.”

Orient boss Richie Wellens said: “Both goals were mistakes. Obviously the pass back was short, which gives them a good leg-up in the game, and then we over cover far too much and allow a winger to pull back in an area.

“First half they were good. Our press wasn’t. We were so lethargic, and slow and sloppy and reactive.

“And they have got a team that is fresh, full of energy because none of them played at the weekend. They just wanted to play forward and run forward and their two wingers caused us a lot of problems because we didn’t set up for that.

“We were better in the second half, our full-backs stepped up and were more aggressive.”

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