Swindon Town 0

Argyle 2
Seip 57, Lucas og 84

THE Pilgrims' impressive set of pre-season results continued with a comfortable win at manager Paul Sturrock's old stamping-ground.

Centre-back Marcel Seip scored the first goal, just before the hour, slamming in a loose ball in the Swindon penalty area.

A second came six minutes before the end after Luke Summerfield crashed a 25-yard drive against the Swindon crossbar. The ball returned to play, hit the home side's substitute goalkeeper David Lucas on the back of the head and rebounded into the net.

With a week to go before the real thing, the result and the performance was another big step in the right direction for Argyle, who have lost just once in their varied and disparate pre-season schedule.

Moreover, with a variety of defenders, they have not now conceded a goal in three and a half games.

The Greens' starting line-up was again diamond shaped. Carl Fletcher was again at its base, with, less familiarly, Karl Duguid at its apex. Interestingly, it was the former Carl who was the Pilgrims' skipper, despite last season's prior claims to the armband by the latter Karl, who was also denoted captain on the team-sheet.

The back four included new centre-back Réda Johnson alongside Seip for the first time since signing from French side Amiens. Johnson had begun the day in Paris, to where he had returned from Plymouth to collect his boots after last week's Stirling-to-Plymouth-via-Morecambe odyssey.

Having been rushed down to the County Ground from Gatwick by chief scout Andy King and after training just once with his new club, Johnson found himself with three totally different back-four colleagues than those with who he had played at Morecambe seven days previously.

The strike pairing, for the first time since the Pilgrims played Livingston at Bathgate, was Jamie Mackie and Ashley Barnes.

The first half was a tight affair with neither side creating a gilt-edged chance. Or even a sterling silver chance, come to that.

For the Pilgrims, the right-hand side looked the more likely supply-route for goals, with David McNamee and Duguid linking well on several occasions.

Their best combination was a one-two which saw McNamee make the bye-line and cut the ball back to the edge of the six-yard box, where Mackie took a swing a connected only with fresh air.

McNamee gave several reminders of the quality he possesses when fully fit. One beautiful run saw him shimmy, dummy, and sprint past two one-on-one opponents before the move petered out for the want of a supporting team-mate.

Swindon posed few problems at Romain Larrieu's end although they could argue they were denied the opportunity of earning a half-time lead just before the break, when Johnson clashed with Lloyd Macklin.

Macklin certainly went over Johnson's long outstretched leg, and there were anxious glances from both sets of players and the crowd before referee John Farries waved away the claims and reprieved Johnson from conceding a second penalty in his first hour and three-quarters as a Pilgrim.

A frustrated Barnes was booked early in the second period, an event which might have had some bearing on his substitution in favour of Rory Fallon soon afterwards.

The arrival of former County Ground favourite Fallon necessitated a change of formation, to a 4-3-3 termed 'a squashed diamond' by Luggy in Scotland.

More importantly, it led to the opening goal. McNamee's industry and perseverance on the right won a corner, from which Clark found the recently-arrived Fallon totally unmarked.

The big Kiwi's downward header was not the best, to be honest, but it found Seip in space and the Dutchman headed the ball goalwards. Goalkeeper Phil Smith blocked the first attempt, but Seip lashed it into the net with interest.

The goal opened the game up, and was perfect for the introduction of Craig Noone, who took about 30 seconds to create a chance for himself, which Lucas beat out.

Another chance went begging soon afterwards, when Mackie's endeavour saw him take the goalkeeper out of the equation on the left edge of the Swindon penalty area.

Had his cross found a green shirt, the game would have been wrapped up, but the pass was too high and too far behind Fallon, and Fletcher could not sweep up the Swindon clearance.

Summerfield fashioned the second to frank the Greens' superiority, and that put an end to any hopes Swindon might have had of putting one over their old boss.

Rick Cowdery

Swindon Town (4-5-1): 1 Phil Smith (12 David Lucas 57); 2 Kevin Amankwaah, 5 Jerel Ifil, 6 Sean Morrison (14 Gordon Greer 58), 3 Callum Kennedy; 7 Jon-Paul McGovern (16 Anthony McNamee 58), 4 Jonathan Douglas (capt), 8 Lecsinel Jean-Francois (15 Alan O'Brien 58), 11 Lloyd Macklin (18 Mark Marshall 63), 9 Billy Paynter (19 Scott Cuthbert 73), 10 Michael Timlin (17 Craig Easton 54). Substitutes (not used): 20 Nathan Thompson.

Argyle (4-4-2): 1 Romain Larrieu; 16 David McNamee, 19 Marcel Seip, 22 Réda Johnson, 18 Gary Sawyer; 20 Luke Summerfield, 4 Carl Fletcher (capt), 2 Karl Duguid (9 Steve MacLean 77), 6 Chris Clark (17 Craig Noone 65); 8 Jamie Mackie, 24 Ashley Barnes (14 Rory Fallon 53). Substitutes (not used): 3 Jim Paterson, 5 Krisztián Timár, 10 Bradley Wright-Phillips, 27 Lloyd Saxton (gk), 32 Joe Mason.

Booked: Barnes 49.

Referee: John Farries (Oxfordshire).