Argyle Under-18s lost 4-1 to Sutton United in EFL Youth Alliance South action on Friday afternoon.
The hosts started on the front foot, applying attacking pressure on Argyle, and were quickly rewarded with a penalty after Joe Mwaro supposedly dragged a Sutton player down inside the area.
Ned Hepburn stepped up and missed from the spot but, just five minutes later, the Suttonnumber 10 gave the South London side the lead.
Things soon turned worse for Argyle, as Sutton found goals two and three within ten minutes of each other. Charlie Bell scored directly from a corner in the 27th minute, curling a left-footed effort in from the set piece on the right-hand side, and Charlie Emery headed home a throw-in just before the 40th-minute mark.
Argyle attempted to change the game through substitutions at the break, but it did not work. Ronny Ruiz scored the hosts’ fourth from a free-kick, curling his shot over the wall and into the top corner.
Lewis Flowers volleyed Toby Maclean’s header across the box and in in the 73rd minute, but that was the final telling action of the game, handing Sutton the three points at home.
Under-18s Head Coach Jamie Lowry said: “Friday was a disappointing performance. We conceded four sloppy goals that we can't be giving away, some individual errors costing us, and then we probably weren’t brave enough in possession to secure the ball and, and have control on the game.
“It's something else we to continue to work on and there's a great focus on being harder to beat and not conceding poor goals, so we have a chance to stay in the game and progress forward as well.
“Things like this do happen though so we’re moving forward to next week already. We spoke about it with the boys in a good debrief after game and we’re continuing to give them ownership and build on and let the squad understand where we kind of need to improve.”
Argyle: 1 Jack Flower (capt), 2 Toby Haley, 3 Joe Mwaro, 4 Billy Devlin (14 Jared Rendle, 46), 5 Lewis Flowers, 6 Toby Maclean (12 Mario Dache, 83), 7 Jovan Wamani, 8 Sam Lord, 9 Frankie Maund, 11 Tashall Sandhu, 15 Kian Burch (10 Fletcher Poole, 46). Substitute: 23 Leo McCormick (gk).
