Argyle 3
MacLean 6, Mackie 76, 85

Barnsley 0

DOCTOR Sturrock had warned against After the Lord Mayor's Show Syndrome but seeing it coming and being able to prevent it are two different things.

Argyle and their fans suffered their way to a sometimes far from comfortable victory with Steve MacLean's first goal since his £500,000 transfer-window move from Cardiff, and Jamie Mackie's first two since his less glamorous and cheaper move down the Devon Expressway from non-league Exeter City.

Until Mackie's dramatic 76th-minute first, less than 15 seconds coming on as substitute, the three points were far from assured for the play-off chasing Pilgrims who led from the sixth-minute through a sumptuous free-kick from MacLean.

Mackie's second in the 85th minute would have been the icing on the cake, but that came two minutes later, when Paul Wotton came on for his first first-team appearance in 15 months. To a standing ovation.

Barnsley admittedly played with ten men for all but the first four minutes of the match after losing defender Lewin Nyatanga to a professional foul. Credit to them that it took the Pilgrims three-quarters of the match to overcome their organised resistance.

Both managers, expectedly, had shown faith in the starting line-ups that had paved the way to splendid victories at the weekend.

Indeed, Barnsley's über qualified coach Simon Davey found no reason to change any of the personnel who contributed to the 2-1 win over West Bromwich Albion at Oakwell, including both striking scorers, Jon Macken and on-loan QPR forward Daniel Nardiello.

Luggy had limited his tinkering to the substitutes' bench, giving a resounding vote of confidence to the initial XI that had seen the Pilgrims a long way down the road of a forever memorable 1-0 win over some relegation-threatened outfit from the midlands.

If he could have done, he would have put another 2,000 names on the team-sheet, such was the Green Army's superbly humorous and humorously superb backing of their heroes at the Theatre of Crisps.

The bench made interesting viewing, with club captain Wotton featuring in a Home Park squad for the first time since December 2006.

Romain Larrieu and Luke Summerfield earned recalls, with striker Lukas Jutkiewicz and midfielder Lee Hodges, who was suffering from a lumbar ailment, giving way.

On the subject of back problems, Barnsley were suffering in that area themselves soon after kick-off.

The back in question was Nyatanga, whose participation in the game lasted barely longer than it takes to boil an egg.

The Welsh international central defender was red-carded by referee Andy Woolmer after hauling back countryman Jermaine Easter just outside the penalty area as the Argyle striker forced his way into the clear behind the Barnsley defence in pursuit of MacLean's flick-on of Lilian Nalis's forward ball.

Woolmer acted only after consulting with linesman Andy Bennett, and, initially, did not look as though he was ready to give the decision on his own. Fortunately for Argyle, Bennett was so convinced there had been a foul he waved his flag so vigorously that it disintegrated.

Once Bennett had convinced Woolmer of foul play, a red card was inevitable, and MacLean stepped up and whacked the free-kick over the wall with the confidence of a man on 20 goals for the season, rather than not having scored for 20 games. MacLean as a whistle.

Barnsley, naturally, sacrificed a striker (thanks for coming, Dan) and brought on a defender as Argyle found themselves in a position not dissimilar to the one they faced when they played Barnsley the previous season: 1-0 up and cruising after rather a good weekend win.

It all went bit flat after MacLean's pearl, a demonstration of the weird psychological phenomenon that has confounded the Westcountry's finest brains: how can 11,000 Argyle fans at Home Park generate only a tenth of the noise made by 2,000 at the Crisp Bowl? Discuss and hand in by Thursday, please.

Still, the objects of their devoted silence looked fairly comfortable in negotiating their way to half-time with no addition and little concern, and might have doubled their tally in the final minute of the half when home debutant Jim Paterson cut in from the left flank and drove in a shot that just cleared Tony Warner's crossbar.

Easter had the ball in the net shortly after the interval, although his lob over Warner was ruled out for a clear handball by the Argyle striker.

Minutes later, an equally clear handball as Barnsley midfielder Martin Devaney blocked Peterson's cross in the penalty area, went unpunished by Woolmer. Bennett was not on hand to help this time.

Someone must have gone around Home Park with a cattle-prod at half-time, because there was a lot more life about the place, and this seemed to lift the players.

However, with Barnsley prepared to stodge it out and hope to capitalise on the break, a second goal was imperative and clear chances remained an elusive commodity.

The longer the game went one, the more the Tykes fancied it, and they came within a scintilla of equalising when Anderson De Silva wriggled free on the left-hand side of Argyle's six-yard box and smacked a shot that hit the crossbar and bounced down before being cleared.

The Pilgrims responded with a genuine chance of their own, Nalis finding space to loose off a shot that Warner scrambled to his left to save after it took a goalbound deflection.

Dennis Souza's composed far-post header from a corner gave Argyle more flutters until Luggy made a telling substitution, bringing on Mackie for Easter.

A blink of the eye later, Mackie was smacking the ball into the back of the net after some great wing play by Péter Halmosi, the young striker's sheer will allowing him to rob Souza to score and start the cheesiest ever celebration seen by the Devonport end.

It was the quickest ever goal by a player on his Argyle debut - first timing gives us an astonishing 11 seconds, beating the 63 seconds that it took loan centre-back Tony Witter to register against Leicester City in the David Kemp era.

Mackie's second was even better, as the former Grecian weaved his way into the box and fired a neat finish into the bottom corner.

As the man said, Mackie is now officially the second best thing to come out of Exeter. After the Devon Expressway.

Argyle (4-4-2): 23 Luke McCormick; 2 Paul Connolly, 5 Krisztián Timár, 13 Mathias Kouo-Doumbe, 18 Gary Sawyer; 16 Péter Halmosi, 26 Nadjim Abdou (15 Paul Wotton 87), 4 Lilian Nalis (capt), 3 Jim Paterson; 9 Steve MacLean, 36 Jermaine Easter (25 Jamie Mackie 75). Substitutes (not used): 1 Romain Larrieu (gk), 14 Rory Fallon, 20 Luke Summerfield.

Booked: Kouo-Doumbe 25.

Barnsley (4-4-2): 1 Tony Warner (gk); 16 Stephen Foster, 3 Lewin Nyatanga, 18 Dennis Souza, 5 Rob Kozluk; 25 Martin Devaney (13 István Ferenczi 80), 15 Anderson De Silva, 10 Brian Howard, 29 Diego León (20 Jamal Campbell-Ryce 64); 11 Daniel Nardiello (2 Bobby Hassell 6), 21 Jonathan Macken. Substitutes (not used): 9 Kayode Odejayi, 24 Michael Coulson.

Sent off: Nyatanga 4.

Booked: Foster 53.

Referee: Andy Woolmer (Northamptonshire).

Attendance: 11,346 (227 away).