Argyle 4
Beevers og 15, Gallagher 25, Mackie 29, Seip 89

Sheffield Wednesday 0

SENTIMENT was thin on the ground as Paul Sturrock ruthlessly brought down his former club.

After what is rapidly becoming a customary bizarre Home Park opening goal, courtesy of the opposition, Paul Gallagher's fourth goal in seven games since joining the Pilgrims on loan from Blackburn, and Jamie Mackie's second in successive games gave Argyle a 3-0 interval lead.

Wednesday fared better after the break, admittedly, but Marcel Seip rounded things off in the last minute with a fine set-piece header.

Tangoman, lad, we did you a favour.

Luggy is, and always will be, a Pilgrim, of course, but part of his heart will always be at (part of) Hillsborough, and the League One play-off final of 2005 remains a cherished memory.

The warmth of that day was coldly consigned to the past by a bravura Argyle home performance that has been a long time coming, but was nonetheless welcome.

It seems strange that, less than three weeks ago, the Pilgrims were as low as they could possibly be, in position and spirit. To paraphrase an excited Barry Davies of yesteryear, just look at the league table now.

Familiarity has bred contentment for Luggy, who selected the same starting line-up for the fourth successive game - almost the fifth, when you remember that Chris Barker replaced Jim Paterson after less than an hour of the victory that began the five-game unbeaten run at Watford.

His former club, whose victory the previous week over Nottingham Forest showed two changes, both in defence, with Richard Wood and former Pilgrim Peter Gilbert failing to pass muster.

Veteran Steve Watson and youngster Mark Beevers came into central defence as Brian Laws shuffled his back four pack.

It was blowing a hooly as the game kicked off, with the driving rain at Argyle's backs as they attacked the Tango-less, but noisy, Wednesday fans in the Barn Park end.

The conditions favoured neither side, but the commitment showed by both made for a cut-and-thrust opening, with Chris Clark to the fore on Argyle's left side. Clarky has been likened to David Norris by Luggy but Chuck is a shirker compared to the Pilgrims' number six, who has clearly discovered the secret of perpetual motion.

McMahon just about kept him under control during an opening that promised much but delievered nothing tangible save a Luke Summerfield corner that Beevers nipped off the toe of a lurking Rory Fallon.

Just as they had seven days earlier, in the same place and in the same manner, Argyle took the lead as a result of defensive frailty and panic by their opponents.

Goalkeeper Lee Grant started the chaotic chapter by failing to hold on to Paul Gallagher's low skidder. Beevers, Tommy Spurr and Mackie converged on the lose ball, which pinballed around before eventually bumping into the net off the luckless Beevers.

Argyle's failure to build a lead at home has been a problem this season. That is 'has been'.

Within a quarter of a hour, they were three up and Wednesday did not know whether it was Saturday or Tuesday fortnight.

There was nothing fortunate about number two, which was the result of a swift, pacy move, from one side of the pitch to the other and back in the centre.

Clark brought the ball in off the left wing, made ground, and found Mackie on the right. The first-time swinging cross was on a prime piece of Wedgewood for Gallagher, who had timed his run perfectly to tap the ball in.

Barely had Luggy had time to fret about 2-0 being the worst lead in football, than the Pilgrims were 3-0 up and rather enjoying themselves.

The manager's nerve-settler came from Mackie, who completed a hat-trick of involvement - irritant, assist and scorer - following Luke Summerfield's left-wing corner.

Mackie picked up the pieces after Grant had made a fine goal-line stop from Fallon's perfectly-executed scissors volley of the flag-kick at the far post - becoming a bit of a party-piece, that. Though Grant denied Fallon a spectacular goal, there was no stopping Mackie.

Laws took off wingers Wade Small and Etienne Esajas at half-time, and put on Francis Jeffers and Jermaine Johnson.

If he had put on my granny, he might have had more of a chance of getting back into the game as the former fox in the box showed himself to be a hippopotamus outside it by firing limply wide of the target when clean through.

Wednesday took advantage of having the elements in their favour to put Argyle under some pressure, but Romain Larrieu's goal was threatened only by Johnson's long-range shot that Le Keeper policed wide.

As they have had a tendency to do when in front, the Pilgrims started to defend too deep: the difference this time was that they were all but out of sight of their opponents. Not quite winning going on, but not winning hanging on, either.

It might have been interesting had not James O'Connor found Larrieu impassable following Jeffers' foxy reverse pass on the six-yard line, but Argyle were largely on cruise- control and could laugh, rather than groan, about Mat Kouo-Dumbe's ambitious long-range shot that troubled only the seagulls in Milehouse Road.

Johnson extended Larrieu once more as the cruise control began to look a bit off-kilter and the legs that have carried the Pilgrims so far in such a small space of time filled up with lactic acid.

The final quarter of the game was largely a successful holding operation, with the Pilgrims showing only occasional menace on the break, mainly through the ever-willing Clark and the sublime Gallagher.

Substitute Jim Paterson joined in the fun, sprinting forward and finding Fallon with a fine cross that the big man juggled with before Watson nipped the ball off his toe.

Sep's header from Sumerfeild late corner might have been a tad unfair on Wednesday but it put the seal on a fine afternoon's work.

Argyle (4-4-1-1): 1 Romain Larrieu; 13 Mathias Kouo-Doumbe, 22 Craig Cathcart, 19 Marcel Seip, 15 Chris Barker; 25 Jamie Mackie (3 Jim Paterson 83), 2 Karl Duguid (capt), 20 Luke Summerfield, 6 Chris Clark (23 Nicolas Marin 88); 11 Paul Gallagher (31 Emile Mpenza 90); 14 Rory Fallon. Substitutes (not used): 5 Krisztián Timár, 8 Yoann Folly.

Sheffield Wednesday (4-4-2): 1 Lee Grant; 2 Tommy Spurr, 15 Mark Beevers, 6 Steve Watson (capt), 19 Tony McMahon; 11 Etienne Esajas (23 Jermaine Johnson.half-time), 8 Sean McAllister, 17 James O'Connor, 26 Wade Small (9 Francis Jeffers half-time); 7 Marcus Tudgay, 10 Deon Burton (14 Jimmy Smith 57). Substitutes (not used): 18 Leon Clarke, 22 Richard O'Donnell (gk).

Referee: Roger East (Wiltshire).

Attendance: 10,795 (1,045 away).