ARGYLE'S late season Championship revival continued with a 1-1 draw at second placed Birmingham City on Easter Monday, their third game undefeated since the latest break for international matches.

Paul Gallagher's first-half penalty, given for a foul by goalkeeper Maik Taylor that saw the Northern Ireland custodian red-carded, was cancelled out by Blues' substitute Franck Queudrue five minutes after the interval.

Following on from the Pilgrims' 4-0 thrashing of Coventry two days' earlier, and the previous Saturday's 1-0 victory at Blackpool, the draw continueda rich vein of form that Luggy puts down to his players' work on Harper's Park.

"We've had a rollercoaster of a season - no ifs, buts or maybes," he said. "There's been so much hard work on that training-ground and I am beginning to see some fruition from it, now.

"We're starting to shape a settled team together - we had seven points out of the last nine and are starting to look the part again.

"People are doing, exactly to the letter of the law, what we are asking them to do. It's definitely benefiting us."

Taylor's dismissal incensed the home crowd, who gave referee Michael Oliver - son of last Saturday's Home Park official, Clive - fearful abuse.

However, Luggy gave the young man in the middle a ringing vote of confidence.

"I didn't see [the incident]," he said.

"I've just been told by Sky that it wasn't a penalty, but there's been three or four times this season when we've had bricker penalties that we haven't got, so we'll take Lady Luck shining on us today.

"I thought the referee handled the game very, very well. Alright, if he's got [the penalty and sending-off] wrong, I'm sure he'll put his hand up, but that's football.

"I do feel there have been times when Lady Luck hasn't shined on us this year, so I'll take a break when it comes, but we were doing very, very well when they had 11.

"Their goalie made a couple of decent saves from us; we've had a couple of goals disallowed for offside; and I've got a disappointed squad in there.

"It's not often that you come to a place like this and get disappointed you didn't get three points. This is a quality team we played against, who are chasing the Premiership."

Luggy felt that the sending-off worked against his team to the extent that the Birmingham side became more determined to get something from the game.

"They played Wolves a few days ago, scored with ten men, and won the game 2-0," he said. "They are all good touch players.

"It's sometimes difficult because they roll their sleeves up and give you even more, and the crowd will back them all the way, so you finish up playing 12 men, instead of 10.

"The last ten minutes, I think we started to get the ball down and got round the box again, and had a few half-chances, a goal disallowed, and lot of decent crosses went in the box."

Blues levelled in the 50th minute, following a slow start to the second period from the Pilgrims, when French defender Queudrue headed home David Murphy's free-kick, with Argyle goalkeeper Romain Larrieu protesting he had been fouled in the process.

"Romain says he got blocked, and Romain has saved us many a time this season," said Luggy. "I was more disappointed with our start to the second half - a lack of concentration cost us dear."

Luggy again enthused about the blossoming striking partnership of Mackie and Ashley Barnes, the latter having two goals disallowed after picking up rebounds from the former's shots.

"Those two are starting to get a blend and shape together and have caused problems to four sets of centre-backs over the last four games," said Luggy.

"They are a handful and they are learning - one's 19 and one's 21. We have got a very young strike-force.

"I thought [Alan] Judge and Gallagher were competent as well, and...I shouldn't individualise - I thought it was a very strong team performance."