Leading From Behind

The Pilgrims’ long-serving goalkeeper played a key part in the 2-1 victory at Crewe Alexandra, saving a first-half penalty from George Cooper which would have put the home side 2-0 up.

Argyle seized the moment and Craig Tanner levelled Alex Kiwomya’s opener within two minutes of the spot-kick save to lay the foundation for Graham Carey to secure the Sky Bet League Two win with 15 minutes to go.

It was Luke’s first penalty save since the opening day of the 2014-15, when he kept out Adam Cunnington’s effort from 12 yards in a 1-0 defeat at Cambridge United.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said the Argyle skipper. “I’ve sort of changed my methods a little bit as to my approach to penalties.

“When he puts the ball down and he looks up, I just like to be a bit of an inconvenience; move around. The pressure’s on him; there’s no pressure on me, as such. He is expected to score. Thankfully, I was able to guess right.

“It might just have given us a lift and did the opposite to Crewe. They are a young team, full of energy and enthusiasm, and something like that maybe affects a younger team more than it does  an older team.

“We were pleased to get Tanns on the ball and it was a fantastic strike with his weaker foot.”

Referee Nigel Miller awarded the penalty after former Crewe midfielder David Fox brought down Crewe’s Scottish Under-21 international James Jones.

“It happened so quickly,” said Luke. “Foxy’s come sliding in to try to block the shot and possibly there was some contact with his trailing leg. It doesn’t take much these days for lads to go down in the box but it was a penalty and I was pleased just to be able to stop it.”