A clinical second-half showing saw Argyle Under-18s beat Newport County 3-0 to record a sixth successive win at the start of their EFL Youth Alliance League campaign.
The Pilgrims went into half-time at 0-0, before Marley-Blu Francis opened the scoring in the 55th minute.
Tashall Sandhu, who replaced Francis just before the hour mark, put the game beyond the hosts’ reach with a quickfire brace.
Head Coach Jamie Lowry opted to make six changes from Saturday’s 4-1 victory over Cambridge United. Only Jovan Wamani and Dylan Williams retained their places in the back five, with Thomas Armytage, Jared Rendle and Toby MacLean all rotated after starting against the Us.
Wamani, Deniz Doru, Williams and Corey Browne started in front of goalkeeper Leo McCormick, from right to left.
Francis and Harry Locke started on the wings, while Seb Campbell returned to partner Joel Tolcher in midfield for the first time since drawing with Cardiff in the PDL Cup.
After scoring a brace at the weekend, James Sharpe was replaced by Emran Boudarga-Wischhoff who paired up with Frankie Maund up top.
Although the fixture was a clash between the top and bottom sides in the Youth Alliance League, the first half was far tighter than most might have predicted.
The first opportunity of the game fell to County’s Harvey Dimodica-Harding, who hit the post from an early free-kick. Straight after the set piece, Argyle defender Doru was forced off through injury and replaced by MacLean.
As the Young Pilgrims grew into the game, they started to cause Newport’s defence more issues, with Campbell having two long-range efforts blocked within the opening 20 minutes.
Browne then had a good opportunity to give Argyle the lead, when he nodded a free header narrowly wide of the post from Locke’s deep corner.
However, the best opportunity of the half fell to Harri Bradley-Jenkins. The Newport striker was left one-on-one with McCormick following Cassius Tanhai’s long goal kick, but he failed to find the target, firing his shot over the bar.
Dimodica-Harding was then booked for persistent fouls on Tolcher, whose influence on the game was growing as Argyle began to dominate possession.
From the resulting free kick, Tolcher earned the Greens a fifth corner of the half after his shot was deflected by County’s captain Harrison Halpin. Halpin joined Dimodica-Harding in the referee’s book on the brink of half-time for dissent.
The hosts had another big chance to take the lead at the end of the first period, when Bradley-Jenkins’ looping header hit the crossbar.
It was a fairly balanced first 45 minutes, with Argyle dominating the ball, but Newport creating the better chances, but Lowry’s side looked revitalised when they came out for the second half and found the opener within 10 minutes of the restart.
Francis finished a slick move, stemming from Tolcher and Campbell in midfield, with a clinical left-footed strike into the middle of the goal.
Newport’s Rhys Barrett had a good opportunity to equalise, but McCormick made a brilliant save down to his right from close range.
Within five minutes of replacing Francis, Sandhu opened his account for the afternoon and doubled Argyle’s lead with a moment of magic. The winger picked the ball up on the right wing, before driving into the box and hitting a powerful shot into the far-bottom corner.
Tanhai made a few good saves to prevent the gap increasing, with his best of the afternoon coming to deny Campbell, after the midfielder broke into the box and struck a volley from well within the 18-yard box.
However, Newport’s keeper was unable to deny what came next – a wonder goal from Sandhu.
Locke delivered a pinpoint cross to find Sandhu at the back post, who connected well with the ball and rifled a powerful volley into the back of the net.
Argyle continued to dominate the ball for the remaining ten minutes and saw out a convincing away victory.
Lowry was pleased with the way his players dealt with another demanding away fixture, particularly given the amount of travelling involved in recent weeks.
He said: “It has been a big week for the lads, so we will give them a bit of credit for how they have come through and still managed to grind out the win, score three goals, and keep a clean sheet.
“I think it is an important part of their development to find out what to do when things are not going exactly to plan, or when you have tough days. You really have to dig in and find the moments of quality that we did today [for the goals].
“We were not at our best in the first half. We were a bit better in the second half and I was pleased with how we managed to find the goals that we needed to go and win the game.
“Overall, I am pleased with the result. We can still do better in terms of performance, but the lads have come through a big week so there are still positives to take.”
Argyle: 23 Leo McCormick, 2 Jovan Wamani, 3 Corey Browne, 4 Joel Tolcher (14 Billy Devlin, 59), 5 Dylan Williams, 6 Deniz Doru (12 Toby MacLean, 4), 7 Harry Locke, 8 Seb Campbell (capt), 9 Frankie Maund (16 James Sharpe, 71), 10 Emran Boudarga-Wischhoff, 11 Marley-Blu Francis (15 Tashall Sandhu, 59).
Goals: Francis 55, Sandhu 64, 80