Argyle Under-18s sauntered into the last eight of the Youth Alliance Cup with a straightforward win over Newport County on Saturday morning.
Tegan Finn scored four goals, two in each half, with Seb Campbell getting two and Fletcher Poole one in a win that neatly followed up the Young Pilgrims’ FA Youth Cup win at Everton on Tuesday night.
After a cagey start to the game, Argyle came alive about a quarter of the way into the tie, with a classic Finn goal. The number 10 picked the ball up in the right-hand channel, cut onto his left foot, and curled sweetly into the corner.
Ten minutes later it was 2-0, with Cole Fisher finding space in the centre, then backheeling to tee up Poole, who slotted home. Fisher was involved again, just a couple of minutes hence, when his shot was parried, and Finn tucked in the rebound.
If the game was not already put to bed, in six second-half minutes everything was neatly wrapped up.
Finn had begun the half with a run to the bye-line that seemed to be illegally halted, but the referee was not interested in awarding a penalty. Then, a few minutes later, with arguably less contact, Finn went down again, and dusted himself off to clip home a penalty that sent the goalkeeper the wrong way, and give Finn his hat-trick.
Next, he turned provider, laying on Campbell, who finished calmly across the keeper, and Campbell got another one shortly afterwards, drifting unchecked through the middle and driving home a low shot that made it 6-0 just after the hour mark.
Argyle cruised from there, and although Newport got one back from a penalty of their own, the Greens were miles clear, and added a seventh at the very end, with perhaps the classiest goal of all.
It started with an excellent challenge by Billy Devlin in the midfield, and he strode on and fed Finn. The latter exchanged passes with Devlin, then danced past a couple of challenges before stroking home.
Head Coach Jamie Lowry was naturally pleased after the game, saying: “The boys did really well today and the win over Newport just tops off a great week, really. They worked really hard and were obviously full of confidence from Tuesday night, so overall a really good performance. They were nice and aggressive, on the front foot, had good energy and work rate.
“We had lots of quality in front of goal to score seven goals. It is really pleasing to go through to the next round of two competitions in the space of five days.”
Argyle: 40 Dan Holman, 2 Harry Shield (12 Joe Mwaro, 62), 3 Toby Haley, 4 Billy Devlin, 5 Jensen Ireland, 6 Joel Sullivan (capt, 14 Toby Maclean, 70)), 7 Cole Fisher (15 Oscar Dean, 75), 8 Seb Campbell, 9 Kian Burch, 10 Tegan Finn, 11 Fletcher Poole (16 Frankie Maund, 62). Substitutes: 1 Leo McCormick (gk).
