Argyle 1
Sheridan 7
Salisbury 2
Osman 56, Sinclair 85
CHRIS Barker played almost an hour of Argyle's totesport.com Combination defeat to Salisbury City at Home Park.
The experienced defender has been out for five months with a calf injury but looked comfortable alongside Krisztián Timár at the heart of our defence.
Cillian Sheridan scored a lovely opening goal for the Pilgrims and there were chances for more in the first-half, but the visitors came back after the interval and deservedly equalised through Toby Osman. Robbie Sinclair then punsihed a poor second-half from the Greens by grabbing a late winner.
Argyle burst out of the blocks with a routine ball down the line from Curtis Nelson finding Sheridan, who cleverly spun his marker, raced clear and slipped a lovely finish through the legs of advancing goalkeeper James Lester for an early lead.
It was not long before Salisbury were facing more Green pressure. Matt Rickard engineered a quick one-two with Nelson and the visitors missed their chance to clear, allowing George Donnelly to poke a shot hopefully wide.
Salisbury settled in the ensuing minutes and pressed forward with increased confidence, but Barker, in particular, was pleasingly assured in his work.
The incisive work continued to come from Green shirts, however, and a flicked header from Sheridan gave George Donnelly the chance to hit a first-time volley that Lester did well to beat away.
The brightest Green spark in a decent first-half was arguably Matt Rickard, only included because of horrendous delays to Alan Gow's flight back from a weekend break. The youth-team forward showed terrific promise in the 'hole', with much of our best creative work coming through his young boots.
A failure to turn dominance into goals cost Argyle ten minutes into the second-half. Kyle Letheren made two excellent saves to deny Sinclair before the second rebound fell to Osman who thumped the ball home from close-range.
There was more concern moments later when Jim Paterson pulled up quickly with what looked like a recurrence of a hamstring strain suffered at Leicester City last month.
The Greens survived a big scare on 70 minutes, as the lively Sinclair surged into the box and drilled in a low cross that deflected off the foot of Ben Gerring and onto the outside of Letheren's near post.
Salisbury were comfortably the better side in the second-half without creating too many clear chances. Argyle's failure to retain possession for significant periods was the catalyst for the visitors.
Argyle's dismal display after the break was rightly punished by the side from the Blue Square Premier. Sinclair turned sharply in the box and fired a tidy finish beyond the hapless Letheren.
Argyle (4-3-3): 1 Kyle Letheren; 2 Curtis Nelson, 5 Krisztián Timár, 6 Chris Barker (13 Ben Gerring 60), 3 Connor Clifford (14 Luke Young h-t); 4 Yoann Folly, 7 Sean Kinsella, 11 Jim Paterson (15 Jake Baker 65); 8 George Donnelly, 9 Cillian Sheridan, 10 Matt Rickard. Substitutes (not used): 16 Alan Gow, 21 Ollie Chenoweth (gk).
Salisbury (4-4-2): 1 James Lester; 2 Jamie Turley, 6 Dan Webb, 5 Nelson Monhon, 3 Lee Brown; 7 Bradley Gray, 4 Ben Adelsbury, 8 Terry Smith, 11 Ryan O'Hara; 9 Toby Osman, 10 Robbie Sinclair. Substitutes (not used): 12 Luke Ruddick, 14 Joe Oastler, 15 Darrell Clarke, 16 Stuart Anderson, 17 James Bittner (gk).
