IN THE SPOTLIGHT
ARGYLE 3
Abdou 23, Halmosi 26, Ebanks-Blake 59
HULL 2
Windass 52, 61
Luke Summerfield was our man to watch in the opening quarter of the FA Cup Third Round tie with Hull City at Home Park.
Summers has not started in the Championship this season, although he did feature in the Carling Cup victories over Wycombe Wanderers and Doncaster Rovers.
Luke lined up in the midfield engine room alongside skipper Lilian Nalis with Frenchman Jimmy Abdou filling the right-wing role vacated by flu victim David Norris. Summers introduced himself to the game with an ambitious 30-yard drive after some neat build-up play that sailed harmlessly into the Barn Park end.
Apart from colliding with Lil for a midfield header, Luke's early contribution was very neat and tidy. He also supported the attack well and directed a clever chip narrowly over after 15 minutes, following a superb Petér Halmosi run and shot.
His next effort was a return to the ambitious bracket. Argyle won a dangerous free-kick on the left edge of the penalty box, but Luke opted to fire a shot into the wall and out for a corner when a cross seemed the better option.
Luke's spell in the spotlight ended with the youngster making a decent contribution. He was heavily involved in the bright start Argyle made to the game.
Before we could decide who to choose next for Player Watch, Jimmy poked Argyle into the lead from eight yards after a mistake by Damien Delaney. That made Jimmy the natural choice as the spotlight successor to Summers.
It was 2-0 to the Pilgrims a couple of minutes later when Petér floated in a free-kick towards the far post. The Hull defence stood and watched as the ball drifted beyond the unmarked Marcel Seip and into the corner of the net without touching anybody.
Not that he was revelling in the glory, but Jimmy was very quiet after scoring the goal. There was no problem with the amount of yardage covered but the ball just wasn't coming his way. Still, not a bad effort from the lad.
It should be noted that Super Luke McCormick kept the two-goal lead intact with a wonderful double save in first-half injury time.
HALF TIME
Super Luke's heroics earned him the Player watch mantle for the start of the second half. We were working on the theory that he would far busier after the interval because were chasing the game and they simply had to perform better than they did in the first 45 minutes.
Theory became fact within a minute as Delaney curled in a tasty shot from the left that was heading for the far corner, but Super Luke intervened with another stunning save to turn the ball away for a corner.
He was soon in action again to pluck the ball off the head of Hull substitute dean Windass, who had made a lively start to his game. There is no doubt Tigers' boss Phil Brown had sent out his troops with a very big flea in their collective ears.
The inevitable Hull goal arrived on 52 minutes when Argyle failed to deal with a punt forward by goalkeeper Boaz Myhill and Windass sauntered clear to lob the advancing Super Luke with ease - it was a very worrying start to the second period for the Pilgrims.
The fear of a replay was starting to loom large in the press box. Should that horrific outcome materialise, it would mean a trip to Humberside just three days after Argyle go to Burnley in the Championship. If this went to 2-2 in the dying minutes, I would be forced to put my Green shirt and grab the winner.
Thankfully for all concerned, the terrifying possibility of me exposing my skinny white legs to the Plymouth public was removed by a lovely Sylvan Ebanks-Blake strike.
Petér was the creator with superb composure to set-up Sylv, who side-footed the ball beyond Myhill with the confidence of a man in form.
Unfortunately, I had forgotten to tell Windass of my threat and he again reduced the arrears to one goal. Fair play to the veteran, it was a fantastic free-kick into the top corner that Super Luke had no chance of reaching.
The heavens opened and we turned to Matty Doumbe for our final Player Watch. No pressure on Mat, but Windass had to be stopped for Argyle to win the game.
Bad start for Mat, as he was out-muscled by Caleb Folan and had to be grateful that the former Wigan striker skewed his cross horribly out of play.
You couldn't blame Mat for being rusty after a couple of months out of the team because of Marcel and Krisztián Timár's good form, but the time to get back in the swing had arrived.
That rustiness was very nearly punished when Ryan France burst through the middle, skipping past Mat in the process, but, mercifully, the Hull midfielder scooped his shot over.
Mat made partial amends on 81 minutes with a terrific clearing header from a Will Atkinson cross that turned the ball away from the path of a wave of visiting attackers. Mat repeated the trick with his foot minutes later.
The fourth official held up the board to indicate five minutes of injury time, and prolong the agony.
Finally the whistle went and we all said thanks to the God of not going to Humberside on a Tuesday night in January.
