Walsall 2
Marshall 53, Reid 70

Argyle 1
Mason 30

by RICK COWDERY

ONE Reid's meat is another Reid's poison.

Reuben Reid, jettisoned by Argyle after only a single league start while at Home Park, upstaged Argyle wonderkid Joe Mason and heaped a first league defeat of the season on his namesake in the Argyle dug-out.

The junior Reid notched the winner midway through the second half of a below-par performance from the spluttering Green Machine to give the senior Reid a progressively worse full-set after his first three npower League 1 games: a win, a draw and a loss.

Mason, who was 19 only in May, scored a marvellous goal - a real striker's strike - to give the Pilgrims the advantage after a none-too convincing opening half-hour at the Banks's Stadium.

Not wishing him away or anything, but, if Mason keeps growing as a player at the incredible rate which he has so far in his career, Argyle will probably soon have to start beating Premier League clubs off with a large green stick.

His strike was cancelled out soon after the interval when former Pilgrim Reid teed up substitute Paul Marshall for a headed equaliser.

Then Reid - a one-time Manchester United junior - delivered the fatal blow to his former club by capitalising on not the first instance of some uncertain Pilgrims defending.

Argyle's search for goals - they had not scored more than one in each of all of their meaningful friendless and opening three league and cup games - had lead manager Peter Reid to selecting an all-new front two in the previous weekend's hero Rory Patterson and young Plymothian Mason.

Steve MacLean was dropped to the bench to make way for the all-Irish international pairing while Rory Fallon stayed at home, having undergone a scan on Friday to attempt to get to the source of a groin problem which has affected him since before the summer's World Cup.

American midfielder Anton Peterlin had failed to recover from a hamstring strain suffered in the later moments of the 1-1 draw with Carlisle United at Home Park seven days earlier, allowing Spurs loan player Dean Parrett to make his full debut.

The remaining eight starting players were the ones that had done similar duty against the Cumbrians and in Argyle's previous away game at Southampton.

Walsall gave a debut to Reuben Reid, who had moved up the road on a season-long loan from Premier League West Bromwich Albion a few days earlier. He replaced injured Darren Byfield.

The Saddlers were otherwise unchanged from the side that won 2-1 at Brentford the previous week after successive home losses to MK Dons, in the league, and Tranmere, in the Carling Cup.

Of course, the other side of Argyle's lack-of-goals coin is that their defence has been hard to break down and they demonstrated that resilience in the opening five minutes, when Bondz N'Gala put the block on a goalbound attempt from Julian Gray.

The Pilgrims' positive response was to fashion an opening for Onismor Bhasera, largely through Mason's delightful lay-off. The Zimbabwean international should at least have made Walsall goalkeeper Jonny Brain have to exercise the body-part he is named after but his shot was well high.

Argyle's first shot on target against busy, but unpenetrative, opposition came from Patterson, who bustled his way on to a deep through-ball and fired off from an angle that was too acute to test Brain too much.

Walsall responded immediately when they were slow to clear their lines and Steve Jones was allowed to fire a shot that was always rising over David Button's crossbar.

Jones failed with a much better opportunity seconds later after more apparent lethargy amidst the Argyle rearguard when he cut in from the right. He never looked comfortable with the ball on his wrong foot, and it was no surprise - but a great relief - when his shot that curled around Button and hit the post.

The Pilgrims relieved the pressure in the best way possible when Summerfield cut in from the right and drilled a cross parallel with the bye-line low into the Walsall penalty area.

There was still plenty to do, but Mason did it with a skill that cannot be taught and an instinct that only the very privileged have, stopping the ball with his back to the goal, and sweeping it in as he pivoted. Believe me, it was a lot more complicated - and, indeed, beautiful - than it appears when described in cold print.

Argyle should have doubled the lead eight minutes before the interval, when Parrett fed Patterson with the sort of ball that he has thrived on throughout his career, just in front of him with a half-yard start on his marker. He took one touch to control, as prescribed, but his second was a shot that cleared the crossbar.

The Pilgrims made it to the interval without further mishap, which is more than could be said for Jones, who limped off after falling awkwardly following a challenge by Kári Árnason.

You sensed that one more goal would kill off the Saddlers, and it nearly arrived in the opening moments of the second half when Lee Molyneux's free-kick deflected nicely for dummy-runner Summerfield, but his first time shot was blocked by Matt Richards.

Reid had spent most of the first half in Árnason's pocket, but emerged to strike hard at the Argyle goal as the back four backpedalled only to find Button equal to the task.

The warning signs were not heeded and, suitably encouraged, Walsall fashioned an equaliser when what appeared to be a communications breakdown between Krisztián Timár and Button resulted in Reid hanging up a cross to the far post that Marshall looped back across the Argyle goalkeeper.

The Pilgrims were denied instant retribution when a linesman's flag ruled out another piece of Mason poaching for offside, and reorganised in the wake of the goal when Molyneux was withdrawn in favour of Chris Clark, and Réda Johnson replaced Timár.

The normally sure-footed Johnson gave the ball away in midfield, allowing Reid to run in on goal and, despite his shot from 10 yards being shovelled, rather that struck, the ball somehow beat Button.

From a position of strength - albeit reached hesitatingly - Argyle were obliged to chase a game that had slipped away from them.

You have to say that that particular problem, like most of the problems of the afternoon, was largely of their own making, though.

If they could not make things tell when they were ahead, you felt there was little chance of being able to do it when they were behind, and so it proved.

The injury-time sending-off of Árnason - a joke decision by referee Keith hill - merely rubbed salt into the Pilgrims' wounds.

Walsall (4-4-2): 1 Jonny Brain; 3 Aaron Lescott (capt ), 6 Manny Smith (4 Clayton McDonald 86), 5 Oliver Lancashire, 23 Ryan McGivern; 7 Steve Jones (12 Paul Marshall 45), 14 Richard Taundry, 8 Matt Richards, 18 Julian Gray; 11 Alex Nicholls, 22 Reuben Reid (19 Will Grigg 83). Substitutes: 2 Darryl Westlake, 15 Jamie Paterson, 20 Sean Geddes, 21 David Bevan (gk).

Argyle (4-4-2): 31 David Button; 3 Bondz N'Gala, 23 Krisztián Timár (5 Réda Johnson 64), 11 Kári Árnason, 34 Lee Molyneux (6 Chris Clark 60); 20 Luke Summerfield (32 Steve MacLean 86), 4 Carl Fletcher (capt), 36 Dean Parrett, 15 Onismor Bhasera; 8 Rory Patterson, 16 Joe Mason. Substitutes: 1 Romain Larrieu (gk), 2 Karl Duguid, 10 Bradley Wright-Phillips, 35 Curtis Nelson.

Sent off: Árnason 90.

Booked: Molyneux 51, Fletcher 90.

Referee: Keith Hill.

Attendance: 3,966 (963 away).