Argyle 2
Fallon 64, MacLean 67

FC Unirea Urziceni 1
Rusescu 34

ARGYLE came from behind to win (you might like to take your time and read that again) a feisty pre-season game - 'friendly' is definitely not the right word - against current Romanian champions Unirea in Glasgow.

After being out-thought and outplayed for 45 minutes, and going into half-time trailing to Raul Rusescu's 34th-minute goal, they emerged with a new shape and a determined attitude to take the honours and the match with two goals in four minutes midway through the second half, from Rory Fallon and Steve MacLean.

It was a victory for manager Paul Sturrock's team tactics and his players' team spirit.

The Pilgrims' first ever 'home' game against Romanian opposition took place on the Balgray Playing Fields, a tidy patch of land in the middle of the better end of Glasgow belonging to Kelvinside Academy, an independent fee-paying school.

Expensive that might be, but watching Argyle play the European Champions' League qualifiers did not cost the Green Army a penny, balancing out tour expenditure after Monday's rather sharp £16 adult admission price at Bathgate. You simply walked in off the street.

Argyle had started with the front three that ended the 2-1 defeat by Livingston, MacLean fronting the diamond midfield that Luggy has used exclusively in all the Pilgrims' pre-season games, behind Fallon and Bradley Wright-Phillips.

Icelandic international Kári Árnáson was given his Greens debut as the sitter, with Craig Noone and captain Karl Duguid the other diamond geezers.

The defence was, goalkeeper Romain Larrieu aside, completely changed from two days previously, with Hungarian international right-back Zoltan Szélesi being trialed and David McNamee making his pre-season bow on the opposite flank. Marcel Seip and Mathias Kouo-Doumbe were recalled to the centre.

Unirea's most notable inclusion was on their bench. Jim McAlister had so impressed their manager, the former Chelsea and Sheffield Wednesday starDan Petrescu, while playing against the Romanians for Morton two days earlier that they wanted another look at him.

As predicted by Paul Sturrock, Argyle did not see a lot of the ball early on, and, as also predicted, the Pilgrims pressed hard. Sometimes very hard - Szélesi, Duguid, Árnáson, McNamee and MacLean all left their mark on the black-shirted opponents.

Argyle's aggression ensured that the game enjoyed a competitive edge, with the Pilgrims as near to what their manager calls 'battle conditions' since returning from the beach. Given the setting, it was all a little incongruous.

The Romanians' quality gave the Pilgrims plenty of food for thought, as they struggled to contain their talented opponents or cope with their system, and consequently failed to cause their goalkeeper any problems.

Mind you, Romain Larrieu was hardly in the thick of the action, either, and had barely had a save to make before he was picking the ball out of his goal ten minutes before half-time.

The Pilgrims' ability to cause problems for themselves at the back has been an unfortunate hallmark of the pre-season, and this time Marcel Seip had to hold his hands up as his indecisive pass let Rusescu run in on goal, round the grounded Larrieu, and fire home from a difficult angle.

The niggle game disintegrated into a game of team handbags shortly after, as Fallon and his team-mates reacted with righteous indignation to the big Kiwi having the back of his shins raked by Pablo Brandan.

The twin ignominy of going behind and being kicked while they were down seemed to spur the Greens, and, after finally finding their width they created a few penalty-area incursions.

The diamond was iced at half-time in favour of bolstering centre midfield by dropping Duguid in alongside Árnáson, and, shortly after they re-emerged, Argyle created their first real chance when Fallon span round and shot after teeing himself up, only for the ball to take a deflection.

Noone was then cut in half by Iulian Apostol, a foul that brought that rarity in friendlies, a yellow card, and the Scouser responded by firing over a cross that caused problems. The Pilgrims were definitely warming up.

Then some. Immediately after McNamee and Duguid were replaced by Jim Paterson and Chris Clark, Fallon fired the Greens level with a low shot after Wright-Phillips had rolled the ball into his path.

Three minutes later, they did what they failed to do all last season and took the lead after going behind when MacLean latched on to another prompt from Wright-Phillips and loosed off a shot that was destined for the back of the net from the moment it left his foot.

The game was delayed for several minutes for treatment to Unirea goalkeeper Giedrius Arlauskis, whom was hurt in a goalmouth melee and eventually stretchered off to a waiting ambulance. He was not, apparently, too badly hurt.

The competitive nature of the game did not dwindle for a second.

Fallon the Fiery was at the centre of another coming together of the two sets of players, which seemed to start with a bit of gouging and continued with at least one butting.

If it had been a league game, it would probably have ended without at least two players on each side.

As it was, the only numbers that counted were the two and the one on the scoresheet.

Rick Cowdery

Argyle (4-4-2): 1 Romain Larrieu; 2 Karl Duguid (capt, 6 Chris Clark 63), 13 Mathias Kouo-Doumbe, 19 Marcel Seip, 16 David McNamee (3 Jim Paterson 63); 11 Kári Árnáson (15 Chris Barker 86), 17 Craig Noone, 22 Zoltan Szélesi, 9 Steve MacLean; 14 Rory Fallon, 10 Bradley Wright-Phillips (8 Jamie Mackie 85). Substitutes (not used): 5 Krisztián Timár, 7 Jason Puncheon, 24 Ashley Barnes, 27 Lloyd Saxton (gk), 29 Damien McCrory.

FC Unirea Urziceni (4-3-3): 1 Giedrius Arlauskis (14 Daniel Tudor 70); 17 Vasile Maftei (16 Epaminonda Nicu 70), 6 George Galamaz, 22 Bruno Fernandes, 23 Valeriu Bordeanu; 18 Ricardo Gomez (8 Sorin Paraschiv 70), 32 Iulian Apostol, 19 Pablo Brandan (10 Razvan Paduretu 56); 14 Raul Rusescu, 7 Marius Bilasco (15 Cristian Dánálache 70), 11 Marius Onofras (3 Jim McAlister 56). Substitutes (not used):(goalkeeper), 26 Dan Matei, 30 Sorin Frunzá, 28 Daniel Stan, 20 Laurentiu Marinescu, 2 Adrian Tache, 4 Ersin Mehmedovic.

Booked: Apostol 55.