Rotherham visit Highbury
Steven Schumacher hopes his peers take heart from recent results in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy when they welcome League 1 side Rotherham United to Highbury this evening.
The Cod Army have seen off the challenge of three higher division clubs to get to the semi-final, with Tranmere Rovers, Crewe Alexandra and Carlisle United all bowing out to Graham Alexander’s men.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s important clash, the former Bury man said: “It’s a good chance for us to go one step further and into the Northern finals, so it’s a game I’m looking forward to. We’ve done well so far against League 1 teams this year and I thought we acquitted ourselves well against Notts County too. Past results show that we’re not frightened of these teams and we’ll go into it expecting a good result.”
Having conceded late goals in their last two games, against Oxford United in the league and Burton Albion in the FA Cup respectively, Schumacher hopes the players have learnt their lesson: “The late goals have been disappointing to say the least as we’ve worked so hard to get ourselves in front in both games, but we were just unfortunate not to show enough quality and discipline to see it out.”
The 29 year old was rested for the weekend’s clash against the Brewers and admitted it was difficult to watch Town concede so late on: “It wasn’t nice to watch to be honest, but it must have been worse to play in. As I said though, to work that hard and not get the result is really disappointing, but that’s football and we’ve got to deal with it and move on.”
The games are coming thick and fast for the Cod Army now, and they’ll travel to Staffordshire for the replay on the 17th December: “You win some and you lose some, that’s football. You’re going to score goals in the last minute and you’re going to concede them, but Saturday in particular was hard to take as it means we’ve got another game now in our already busy schedule.”
Saturday’s game was a special one for the junior players at the club, as the committee had bought tickets for all their players, and Schumacher was quick to praise their efforts: “It was a good little following from the little ones. They were screaming at me during half time to run over to them and say hello, so they must have had sore heads in the morning! It was good to see a load of them there and hopefully they can keep on coming.”