As ever, the Whites had to do it the hard way, going down to 10 men at the end of a goalless second half when John McAtee was deemed to have deliberately elbowed Alex Mitchell by referee Charles Breakspear.
Johnny Kenny’s penalty sneaked them ahead but Ronan Curtis’s smart finish on 57 minutes left a lot of work to even secure a point.
Undeterred Mason Burstow created the second goal with a brilliant cross towards Sam Dalby, with Malachi Boateng eventually getting the deciding touch.
And Bolton defended that lead like lions by the end, leaving the head coach with a smile on his face and a fourth straight victory against his former club.
“It might be one of my favourite wins since I’ve been the Bolton Wanderers manager because to dig in, come to a team at their place who are second in the form table in a really hostile atmosphere, get a decision go against us the way it did, to come away with a win is fantastic.
“Johnny Kenny did brilliantly to create the penalty.
“I thought it was going out of play, I don’t know how he caught it. Mason Burstow did brilliant for Sam’s goal.
“To come away from this place against a team who haven’t been beat for so long was brilliant.”
Wanderers – who were without the injured Xavier Simons and Ethan Erhahon along with Kyle Dempsey, who stayed at home because of a family-related issue – had to chop and change throughout the game to keep themselves in contention.
McAtee’s red card further complicated matters but Schumacher was delighted with his players’ response.
“Obviously, having a man sent off just before half-time changed our game plan as such, but the effort that the players put in in that second half and the courage that they played with to still try and have an attack, even though we were one man down, was excellent,” he said. “I am really pleased with three points.
“I think it was a really competitive game. We knew Argyle have been really good and in brilliant form because of how physical they are. They’re good from set-pieces.
“They’ve got two strong front players, three strong front players. Obviously, Lorent Tolaj came on in the second half. They get really aggressive.
“They come and chase after you. They go man for man, which obviously takes a lot of figuring out how you’re going to try and break that down. So, we knew it was going to be a physical game, and I thought that we did really well, despite not having any midfield players – or at least the more combative midfield players, anyway, so we did really well.
“I said to them at half-time: ‘Smetimes, boys, you go through a season where you have a little bit of adversity.’
“We’ve had a little bit of that this week in the camp. You have to find a way to come through it, and we have.”