IN THE SPOTLIGHT
ARGYLE 1
Fallon 50
SOUTHAMPTON 1
Wright-Phillips 12
We decided to give new signing Steve MacLean 20 minutes to get settled before inflicting the pressure of Player Watch on him for today's Championship meeting with Southampton at Home Park.
First choice, therefore, was his new strike partner, recalled Kiwi Rory Fallon, and the big man caused the visitors an instant problem from a delightful David Norris cross. Rory arched his back and steered a decent header narrowly wide.
His second contribution was not quite so positive. After battling to win the ball, Rory's lay-off to Chuck was wildly inaccurate and the attack broke down.
Argyle's lively start to the game came to an abrupt end when Bradley Wright-Phillips sprung the offside trap to race clear and dink the ball neatly past advancing 'keeper Luke McCormick for the opener.
Rory ended his spell in the spotlight with an attempted cushioned header for our next victim, Steve MacLean, that had fractionally too much purchase.
Stevie Mac started his spell with an incisive ball inside to find the powerful run of Chuck, but Argyle's midfield dynamo fell tamely to the floor in the box in a very hopeful attempt at winning a penalty.
Minutes later and our man forced Saints' skipper Darren Powell into a wonderful block at the near post. The ball broke to Lilian Nalis who brought out a stunning save from Kelvin Davis - the Green screw was turning.
MacLean and Chuck then combined again on the edge of the box and Davis had to produce another sprawling stop to deny Norris.
The Pilgrims were dominating the game and, although MacLean was not overly involved, one delightful dummy gave Rory the chance to set Chuck off on yet another rampaging run forward.
The half ended with an almighty goalmouth scramble. MacLean caused the initial problem, Chuck played the ball to Rory, who collided with Davis, the ball bounced up to Péter Halmosi, and Powell somehow got back to clear the header off the line - I think that's what happened anyway.
HALF TIME
We moved our focus to Péter Halmosi, surely an early contender for Argyle's Player of the Season and a man we needed to play well if we were to find a way back into the game.
His first act was to be caught cruelly offside after some superb link-play involving Rory and Stevie Mac seemed to have sent Péter clear down the left. It was either a scandalous decision or poor play from Péter for not timing his run.
A fully deserved goal for Argyle and man-of-the-match so far Rory Fallon arrived on 50 minutes. Péter sprinted down the wing after some fine play by Gary Sawyer and Krisztián Timár, and our man cut the ball back for Rory to steer a well-executed volley into the far corner.
The influential Péter tested Davis again moments later with a floated free-kick that the former Sunderland stopper collected comfortably.
Another flowing Argyle move, orchestrated by Péter and Rory, ended with the same pair in the box. The only blot on the move was the eventual chance fell to Péter's considerably weaker right-foot and his shot looped over.
Saints' right-back Alexander Ostlund simply could not handle Péter and our man danced past him twice in succession, and delivered dangerous crosses that the visitors just managed to scramble clear.
Away from the Péter and Rory show, Southampton's Polish international striker Grzegorz Rasiak earned himself a deserved booking after a shameless dive in the box, prompting the second loudest cheer of the day, thus far.
We ended today's eventful Player Watch with a closer look at substitute Yoann Folly, making his home debut for the Pilgrims.
Folly hopefully showed us a sign of things to come with a determined run into the box from deep and he came within a whisker of getting a touch on Chuck's driven cross to the near post.
Yoann found himself in an even better position minutes later after more superb play from Péter and our man will be disappointed not to have picked out one of his new team-mates with his low cross from inside the right edge of the area.
The Pilgrims were camped in Southampton's half and yet another well constructed move ended with Powell charging down Yoann's powerful drive from 20 yards.
The game ended with fatigue on a churned-up pitch and bad luck in front of goal forcing Argyle to settle for a draw.
