PLYMOUTH Argyle boss Steven Schumacher is hoping to give the Green Army a day out to remember at Sunday’s Papa Johns Trophy Final against Bolton Wanderers at Wembley Stadium (3pm).

The Pilgrims have sold 38,500 tickets to their fans and speaking to the Official EFL Podcast, Schumacher said: "Argyle last went to Wembley in 2016 in the Play-Off Final and we sold 33,000 for that and by all accounts, it wasn’t a good experience.

"The team didn’t play very well on the day and were beaten by Wimbledon, so everybody remembers that for the wrong reasons.

"I want to make sure that it’s a good game of football. We’re two teams whose styles gel quite well and they’re always exciting games when we play against them."

Schumacher also highlighted the opportunity provided by the Papa Johns Trophy to expose young players to senior professional football.

"We felt it was a good chance early on to play some young players from our Academy. We have an Under-18s but we don’t have anything then until the first-team – we decided a few years ago we didn’t have the finances to support an Under-23s team.

"It’s a good chance for us to see those players mixing and I decided this year to try and put four or five youngsters in with four or five seniors and see how we go.”

Schumacher added: "The hardest part of the job is trying to keep everybody in your squad motivated when you’re trying to name a team and go through the reasons of why’re you’re picking that team but trying to convince people that they’re still part of it.

"I genuinely feel as though, this season, our players have been brilliant and they’ve accepted decisions we’ve had to make.

"It’s not going to be any easier on Sunday when you’re playing at Wembley which is where everyone wants to play. There’s going to be certain people that will miss out on the squad and that will be the hardest conversation to have.

"It happened to me one time when I got left out of the starting 11 in a Play-Off Final for Fleetwood and it broke me.

"It was the last game of the season and I stewed on that all the summer. Thankfully, this weekend, it’s not the last game of the season and there’s still eight more cup finals for us. Everybody will play their part."

Looking at the opposition, managed by Ian Evatt, Schumacher commented: "The success that Ian has had with Bolton over the last few seasons has been amazing.

"They’re a team who are so strong in loads of different areas. They’ve been like that now for a few years. When they get the momentum behind them, they’re a tough team to stop. The run they went on, getting out of League Two, was incredible.

"The first season in League One, they played some amazing football and got going again towards the second half of the season, and they’ve started this season really well and been in contention in the top six pretty much all season.

"I’ve got nothing but respect. He’s someone who I can definitely look at."