Steven Schumacher: Plymouth Argyle boss proud of Sheffield Wednesday performance

Steven Schumacher and his players were keen to acknowledge the 3,700 Argyle fans that made the trip to Sheffield Wednesday

Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher says he is proud of his side despite losing their top-of-the-table clash at Sheffield Wednesday.

The 1-0 loss came after early injuries to centre-back Dan Scarr and highly rated goalkeeper Michael Cooper.

"We had a setback early on with the goal and another two setbacks with losing two key players really early in the game," Schumacher said.

"But I'm really proud of the players, because we didn't crumble.

"Lesser sides and lesser teams that haven't got the character that we showed today would have lost by more than one.

"We pushed Sheffield Wednesday all the way, we created some half-decent chances in the second half in particular, but it just wasn't meant to be."

Argyle will have to wait for scans to find out the extent of goalkeeper Michael Cooper's knee injury

The defeat drops Argyle to second in League One - Wednesday are level on points with the Pilgrims but have a game in hand and a superior goal difference.

Schumacher says it is too early to know the extent of the injuries to Scarr and Cooper, who suffered foot and knee injuries respectively.

But he is confident his side's title chase will not be knocked off course by the loss.

"The outcome of this season isn't going to be decided on this one afternoon.

"These are a top team, we've proved all season that we're a top team, we managed to edge it in the last minute at our place, they've managed to edge it here and I think that's fair enough.

"I think both results are probably the right results on reflection, so I can't complain about it, there's still a load of games to play and we've got a good squad that are well equipped and capable to put another run together and we'll be confident going into next week."

A crowd of 33,442 were in attendance - the highest gate of any game in League One this season and more than every game in the Championship on Saturday, as well as three games in the Premier League.

Around 3,700 away fans made the trip for the game, a support that Schumacher was keen to praise.

"It's just an incredible effort for everyone to get here up and down the motorways and travelling all sorts of distances to come and support the team.

"We asked the players to put in a performance that they'd be proud of, they obviously were because they stood behind and clapped every single one of them off the pitch because they could see they gave everything to them today."