Argyle Under-18s suffered a 6-1 defeat to Stevenage on Saturday morning at Harper’s Park.
Jared Rendle's second-half free-kick came as only a small consolation for the Greens, as the Hertfordshire side ran away with the lead in both halves.
Throughout the first 25 minutes, Argyle held the majority of possession but had little to show for it, with both sides also winning corners early on, as the rain poured down.
Then, the visitors took the lead and quickly pushed on to make the advantage three. The first came through Lenny Brown, after the forward picked off a loose pass in Argyle's defensive third, drove forward and bundled the ball home past Leo McCormick.
Nine minutes later, they had a second through a Fatih Mustafa header, followed by Dylan Suleiman’s finish just two minutes after that.
Argyle’s Rendle pulled one back for the Greens just minutes after the restart, curling a left-footed free-kick into the back of the net from the edge of the box.
This small bit of hope did not last long, however, as three more goals for Stevenage in 12 minutes pulled the game away from the home side. Mustafa slotted home his second of the game just before the 70th minute, with Samuel Ayolie and Frank Norris scoring the fifth and sixth goals of the tie for the London-based side.
Head Coach Jamie Lowry said: “A disappointing result. The biggest thing, at the moment, is that we really struggle to deal with setbacks. There was nothing really in it for 25 minutes and then as soon as we conceded, we saw a downfall by making wrong decisions when playing out.
“We have lots of learning to do as a group and must come back stronger and think about how we deal with setbacks individually and collectively at the moment ahead of the upcoming games.”
Argyle: 23 Leo McCormick, 2 Joe Mwaro, 3 Toby Haley, 4 Billy Devlin, 5 Lewis Flowers, 6 Toby MacLean (12 Liam Uren, 64), 7 Fletcher Poole, 8 Sam Lord, 9 Frankie Maund (15 Kian Burch, 70), 10 Seb Campbell (capt), 11 Tashall Sandhu (14 Jared Rendle, half-time). Substitute: 1 Tom Armytage (gk).
