Argyle Under-18s came out as victors in an 11-goal pre-season thriller against Burton Albion at Millennium Fields on Tuesday afternoon.
Braces from Jared Rendle and Seb Campbell, and goals from Sam Lord and Frankie Maund, propelled the Greens to a 6-5 victory in turbulent weather conditions.
Jamie Lowry’s side started on the front foot, pressing high and panicking the visitors' defensive line. Soon enough, it worked in their favour. Lord picked up the ball from a loose pass out of the back and curled an effort into the bottom corner in the fourth minute.
However, over the next quarter of an hour, Burton dominated and had the ball in the back of the net three times - although the offside flag meant that the visitors only led by a single goal, rather than two.
As the half neared its end, Argyle turned things around. A two-minute double from Rendle pushed Argyle into the lead; a left-footed curling effort into the far top corner being the pick of the two strikes.
The Greens started the second half much like they ended the first and soon found themselves leading 5-2 just five minutes after the restart. Maund, just two minutes in, rounded the goalkeeper and slotted home after beating the defensive line for pace.
Substitute Campbell then scored his first of the game – Argyle’s fifth – tapping home a cross across the face of goal from Maund.
Burton found the back of the net twice, with the latter coming in the 68th minute but, almost immediately, a two-goal lead was back in play. Argyle played down the left and delivered into the box, where Campbell fired home, after his initial header was saved.
The visitors scored their fifth goal of the game with just over five minutes to go, following a goalmouth scramble, but that was the final action of the game before the referee blew for full-time.
Head Coach Jamie Lowry said: “Definitely one for the spectators today! However, there were many pleasing aspects. We won the football game, which we tell the boys is important, even in pre-season. We scored six good goals and had some really good passages of play and patterns.
“The frustrating thing is to be conceding five goals. That’s something we're going to have to really build on and work on from now until the start of the season, and also throughout. I'm sure once I watch it back and settle down, there'll be lots of positives to take. We just need to make sure our mindset and mentality are in the right place.”
