Sunderland lost 2-0 at Plymouth and Pilgrims boss Steven Schumacher felt keeping Jack Clarke quiet was key
Sunderland’s inability to convert their chances and Clarke’s inability to add to his nine goals this season allowed Schumacher to claim that his right-back Joe Edwards had kept the wideman in check. “I thought Joe Edwards was top-class playing against one of the best players in the championship, Jack Clarke,” he remarked
“He obviously got in a couple of times, Clarke, but I thought Joe did brilliantly against him. And Pleggy [Julio Pleguezuelo] and Gibbo [Lewis Gibson] looked solid in central defense.
“We picked Pleggy today bearing in mind Jobe Bellingham’s positioning on the pitch, and we thought Pleggy was best-suited to sort that out because he goes a bit deeper.”
Sunderland were the better side throughout, dominating possession and racking up 24 attempts on goal, but Plymouth were more clinical, scoring with their only two efforts on target. Morgan Whittaker put them in front with an unstoppable strike midway through the first half, with Finn Azaz scoring the second shortly before half-time.
Sunderland hit the woodwork twice through Bellingham and Trai Hume and also brought a number of saves out of Argyle keeper Michael Cooper. Schumacher said: “We knew the strength of the Sunderland team coming into it, how good they were and how threatening their forward players are.
“You just look at the quality of the young players that were on the pitch for both teams. As I said last week, I felt there were going to be chances, and there were.
“Sunderland started the game incredibly well, incredibly fast and we had to dig in and stick together to get through that tough period. It was similar in the second half and then when we had our chances we were clinical with them.
“I just felt that if we could have taken one of those breaks we had in the second half then it would have given everybody a bit more room to relax but it wasn’t meant to be, and a clean sheet was excellent.”
Defeat meant Sunderland slipped to ninth place in the table ahead of Wednesday night’s home game against Huddersfield Town, while Plymouth stay 19th with this only their second victory in nine outings.
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