Argyle 3
Nalis 11, Halmosi 35, Halmosi 76

Burnley 1
O'Connor 19

THE Argyle promotion bandwagon endured a torrid journey against similarly aspirant Burnley to reach the sanctuary of another three points as the Pilgrims extended their winning run in this highly competitive Championship season to four games.

Péter Halmosi's seventh and eighth goals of the season, which followed Lilian Nalis's first for 43 matches, secured the leap up to fifth spot.

Nalis opened the scoring in the 11th minute, courtesy of Danish goalkeeper Brian Jensen's howler, but James O'Connor quickly levelled before Halmosi's persistence restored the Pilgrims' lead on 35 minutes

It was not until the Hungarian's second, 15 minutes from the end, that Argyle could count their chickens.

And continue dreaming.

Argyle manager Paul Sturrock had made just one, enforced change from the starting 11 that had paved the way to the Pilgrims' first win in more than 40 years at Southampton the previous Tuesday.

Jim Paterson, the left-back who had started on the right side of midfield at St Mary's and scored the second goal in the 2-0 win, damaged his hamstring in training on Friday and will be hors de combat for several weeks.

His place went, nominally, to Gary Teale, the right-winger borrowed from Derby on Tuesday for the rest of the season, with Halmosi, the other midweek scorer, swapping back flanks to resume his favoured place on the left.

Burnley, who had not previous played for 11 days, similarly made one, unwanted, switch from the line-up that had begun their last game, a 4-2 win against Queens Park Rangers after being two down at Loftus Road.

Andrew Cole, the former England international borrowed from Sunderland and scorer of a hat-trick against the not so Super Hoops, gave way to an Achilles problem and, with his natural replacement, Ade Akinbiyi, sidelined through illness, Chris McCann started.

McCann took his place on the left side of a midfield that also included Joey Gudjonsson, brother of former Pilgrim Bjarni, with Northern Ireland international Kyle Lafferty moving up front to partner Robbie Blake, the scorer of the goal that separated the two sides when they met at Turf Moor last month.

The opening ten minutes of the game were played almost exclusively in the Argyle half of the field, though little of it in the danger area, as Burnley probed a Pilgrims defence that had conceded just one goal in more than eight hours of league football.

In best away mode, Argyle soaked up the pressure and responded with a goal from their first shot of the game, a strike that will have Danny Baker, Nick Hancock and the like queuing up to buy the clip for their Christmas DVD of gaffes and bloopers.

Nalis's straight driven volley from the edge of the penalty area, following a half-cleared free-kick into the Burnley box, was on target but Jensen was down and on the ball in plenty of time.

In leaving his derriere in the air, however, he neglected his second line of defence and, when the ball slipped through his arms, it went through his legs and squirmed, to much amusement all round, into the goal.

If Jensen was 100% culpable for the opener, the same could not be said for Argyle 'keeper Luke McCormick's part in the Claret's swift equaliser.

SuperLuke was left horribly exposed as Wade Elliott made the Devonport End bye-line with ease and chipped up a cross for Lafferty. The striker's unchallenged nod-down found an equally free O'Connor, who completed a sweet move by heading the ball inside McCormick's left-hand post.

Even the goal could not seem to jolt Argyle immediately out of their post-Saints afterglow, but, with 15 minutes to the interval, they suddenly hit their stride.

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what triggered the revival, but it was around about the first that time that Teale got to stretch his legs on his flank. The move came to nothing in itself but it did provide the impetus from which Halmosi eventually netted the go-ahead goal.

It came after a Green barrage from either side, in which Teale found himself in a good position in front of goal, and Jermaine Easter might have won a penalty.

In the end, Gary Sawyer and Steve MacLean linked to good effect to play Halmosi in and, although Jensen stopped his first attempt, the magical Magyar had enough about him to poke the loose ball over the line.

Jensen at least partially redeemed his earlier error in time added on at the end of the first half when he came from his goal to deny Easter, who had broken behind the Burnley defence, much as he had done against Barnsley in the previous home game.

This time, he was not fouled by the last man, and Jensen came quickly from his goal to get down well and block the Welshman's low shot.

Poor Jermaine. No-one works harder than him, and he certainly deserves a goal for his recent efforts, but seems to find inspired goalkeepers facing him every time he gets in a good position. Maybe he should have a word with Lucky Lil before what seems to be bad luck turns into a crisis of confidence.

Argyle began the second period on the back foot, with Elliott, their tormentor-in-chief at Turf Moor and again on this occasion, drawing a booking from Sawyer and continuing to cause problems.

Easter had an almost carbon-copy opportunity of his late first-half effort to ease the Pilgrims' concerns and his own self-belief just before the hour but found Jensen again in imperious form.

Rather like their previous home game, Argyle found holding on to a one-goal lead something of a precarious pastime, as Burnley, away-day specialists this season, poured forward.

Elliott created a chance for Lafferty with a splendid cross from right to left but the big striker could not find even the minutest of touches that would have brought the scores level.

Then McCann cut in from the left side and drove a low shot across the goal that was destined for the far corner when it left his foot but was deflected on route by Paul Connolly, albeit only just.

The Pilgrims could find little respite as their defensive resolution was stretched to its very limit. The fight took its toll on Teale and Easter, who gave way to Jamie Mackie and Paul Wotton, for whom the situation may well have been invented.

Before he limped off, Teale had nearly signed off with a goal, but his low drive was turned around the post for a corner by Jensen. The flag-kick gave Mackie a chance to beat his rapid debut goal against Barnsley, but although Argyle scored soon afterwards, it was not within 11 seconds and it was not the supersub who netted.

Halmosi, having stayed up for the right-wing corner, got hold of the ball, cut inside and fired a low shot which beat Jensen for pace as much as anything.

Game over. Bring on West Brom.

Argyle (4-4-2): 23 Luke McCormick; 2 Paul Connolly, 5 Krisztián Timár, 21 Russell Anderson, 18 Gary Sawyer; 7 Gary Teale (15 Paul Wotton 75), 26 Nadjim Abdou, 4 Lilian Nalis (capt), 16 Péter Halmosi; 9 Steve MacLean (14 Rory Fallon 82), 36 Jermaine Easter (25 Jamie Mackie 75). Substitutes (not used): 1 Romain Larrieu (gk), 19 Marcel Seip.

Booked: Anderson 45, Sawyer 46, MacLean 55.

Burnley (4-4-2): 12 Brian Jensen (gk); 2 Graham Alexander, 24 Stanislav Varga (5 Clarke Carlisle 23), 6 Steven Caldwell (capt), 3 Jon Harley (26 David Unsworth 82); 11 Wade Elliott, 7 James O'Connor, 8 Joey Gudjonsson, 16 Chris McCann (10 Mark Randall 86); 17 Kyle Lafferty, 20 Robbie Blake. Substitutes (not used): 1 Gabor Kiraly (gk), 15 John Spicer.

Booked: Harley 15, Elliott 78.

Referee: Jarnail Singh (Middlesex).

Attendance: 13,557 (away 730).