RETURNING Argyle skipper Karl Duguid paid tribute to central midfield partner Luke Summerfield after the Pilgrims' 2-0 victory over Southampton.
Summers netted the second goal from the penalty spot early in the second half after Rory Fallon had opened the scoring towards the end of the first period.
The win ended a six-match winless streak that has coincided precisely with Karl's absence through injury, but any suggestion that his return brought the best out of Summers was flatly rejected.
"I can't say enough about Summers," said Karl. "I see him every day in training and...what hard work he puts into his game, and how much he wants to play at the highest level.
"It helps me, playing alongside him, not me helping him. I haven't played there a lot in my career, and he has helped me a lot.
"He's great to play with. He's enthusiastic and I've said from the day I walked in here that he's got a great chance.
"He's a very good footballer. He's got great passing ability, and we have scored a lot of goals off his set-pieces this season."
Karl was also full of praise for winger Craig Noone, who marked his full debut for the Pilgrims with the cross for Fallon's 38th-minute headed opener.
He said: "He's set the goal up, so he's started and he's got an assist - you can't ask for much more than that.
"He's exciting, great for the fans to watch. He gets crosses in the box and that's what the manager wants. He's waited a long time for his start. He's come on and done well when he's been sub, and he did very well today.
"We're all pleased for him - he's a great lad, all the lads love him to bits. He's got a great future - the manager thinks a lot of him - and he can only go from strength to strength.
The victory was hard won by a non-vintage performance but Karl was just delighted to be back and back to winning ways.
"It's always nice to wins games and it was important for us to win today," he said.
"We might have played better football in the previous games against Birmingham and QPR, but it was a battling performance today, and, no matter how you do it, you've got to get three points.
"It's not nice, when you are injured. You want to be involved, but you still want the team to do well. They put in some good performances over the time I was out injured, but they didn't quite get the results that they wanted.
"We've played in games when we haven't played that well when we've got three points - Preston was one - but, at the end of the day, you have got to get three points, no matter what.
"Away fans used to call Arsenal "Boring, boring Arsenal" but the home fans loved it because they managed to get three points a lot."
Karl admitted that his first taste of action for a month did begin to tell towards the end of the game but is looking forward to Sunday's visit to Cardiff.
"It did get hard at the end because the pitch is heavy," he said. "Southampton pass it about a lot and you are chasing around a lot, but that's part and parcel of it.
"It was tough towards the end but it's 90 minutes that I've got in me now. Hopefully, I can recover for Sunday and we can get another three points."
