Plymouth Argyle must improve away form, says manager Steven Schumacher

Barnsley's 3-0 win over Plymouth saw the gap between second-placed Argyle and third-placed Ipswich narrowed to two points

Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher says his side have to improve their away form between now and the end of the season.

The promotion-chasing Pilgrims lost 3-0 at Barnsley on Saturday as they failed to win on the road for the fifth time in six games since the start of 2023.

They remain second in League One, but third-placed Ipswich Town narrowed the gap to two points with 10 games to go.

"We have to do better away from home," Schumacher told BBC Radio Devon.

"We've got to defend better, look after the ball better and try and get results and keep our home form as strong as it is if we can."

Argyle's success has been built on a formidable record at Home Park. They have won 16 of their 18 matches and their only loss - to Port Vale on 2 December - ended a club record of nine successive home wins from the start of a season.

But away from home they have won six and lost five of their 18 matches, and are three points behind leaders Sheffield Wednesday who have two games in hand.

The Pilgrims' run-in sees them play just one side currently in the top 10 - eighth-placed Shrewsbury Town - but Schumacher's side have conceded 10 goals in their past four away games, including a 5-2 loss at Peterborough United last month.

"There's going to be 10 tough games to go in the league and we have to make sure that we play better than we did, especially in the second half today, if we're going to get anything from them," Schumacher added after the Barnsley defeat.

"Our home form has been so strong - we're quite comfortable with how we play at home.

"The last three away games I feel as though at Sheffield Wednesday we were in the game, at Peterborough we made our own mistakes and got punished, and today I felt we got punished from poor defending from two throw-ins.

"So it's something we're going to have to address because whoever we go to away from home you're the underdog - they're going to be up for it and the crowd are going to be up for it when a team at the top end of the division comes.

"We'll just have to try and keep going. Ten games to go, we've got a two-point lead on Ipswich - if someone had said that to us at the start of the season we'd have snapped their hand off, so I won't moan too much.

"I'm guessing there's going to be loads of twists and turns in the run-in, but I'm not really bothered about what everybody else has to do, I'm only concerned about what our team does."

• Elon Musk's Twitter Storm: Find out how the new owner is transforming the company

• Are eco laundry products better for the environment? Greg Foot investigates how such claims come out in the wash...