Argyle 1 Accrington 0: Match report

A goal by Reuben Reid worthy of winning a match of much greater import than the battle between Sky Bet League 2’s in-form teams kept Argyle three points clear at the top of the division.

The Pilgrims needed an unbeatable combination of Reid’s skill; dogged determination in the face of talented and organised opposition; and sheer, naked good luck to record a fourth successive league victory.

Reid’s expert long-range tracer volley midway through the second half settled a match in which Stanley hit the woodwork twice and gave Argyle goalkeeper Luke McCormick such a busy afternoon that he was named man of the match by sponsors the Green Taverners.

The two clubs came into the game each on the back of fine form this season and a decent away win the week before, on the basis of which both managers decided any changes would be inappropriate.

Derek Adams selected the same 18 Pilgrims in the same positions as those that had done duty in the 2-0 win at Notts County the previous Sunday, meaning midfielders Carl McHugh and Graham Carey started Argyle's first game of the season as outright League 2 leaders on the substitutes' bench.

However, Accrington manager John Coleman was forced into a late change from the starters in Stanley’s 2-1 win at Barnet when Adam Buxton fell ill during the hour after the teamsheets were handed into referee Nick Kinseley; Joe Wright was promoted from the substitutes' bench.

Argyle have yet to find the net in the initial half an hour of a home match on their way to the summit but they nearly went ahead inside the opening few minutes with their first attack of the game. The ball worked its way, via Hiram Boateng’s steal outside his own penalty box and Gregg Wylde’s pluperfect pass, to Jake Jervis, whose low shot brought the best out of 6ft 9in opposition goalkeeper Jason Mooney.

From auspicious beginnings, the Greens were then undone twice in quick succession by the Owd Reds purple-patch striker Josh Windass.

First, the son of Dean – for whom, surely, an Alice band would be an anathema – took advantage of Peter Hartley’s slip on Home Park’s slick surface to run through unopposed. As he was sizing up which side of McCormick to place the ball, he failed to sense Curtis Nelson sprinting back to deny him a shot with a perfectly-timed tackle.

Immediately afterwards, Windass found himself in the clear again. This time, he had Matt Crooks and Piero Mingoia for company, amid not much Pilgrims cover, and he opted to pass to the former. McCormick talked this week about how Adams has raised standards since arriving at Home Park and the save that the Argyle goalkeeper made from Crooks’ shot was no better illustration.