Argyle 1 Accrington 0: Match report

ARGYLE picked up their first win of 2015 - at the sixth time of asking - with a single goal victory over Accrington Stanley at Home Park.

For the second time this season, the Pilgrims besieged Stanley with chances and the fixture finished 1-0 - only this time, it was the men in green who took the deserved victory.

The winning goal game from Lewis Alessandra three minutes before the break at the end of a first half in which Argyle were on top, but were unconvincing. After the interval, John Sheridan's men upped their game significantly, strafing Stanley in waves yet failing to add to their tally. Football, eh?

The victory ended a seven-game winless run for Argyle - but was a fifth straight defeat for a struggling Accrington outfit.

After a brief flirtation with a four-man defence last weekend at Hartlepool, John Sheridan once again opted to revert to a back three, and with the switch came the return to action for Peter Hartley. The burly defender has had a bad time of it with injuries of late, but after coming through a substitutes appearance last week at his old stomping ground in the north-east, he was back into the thick of first-team action.

He was joined by Olly Lee, who made a scoring cameo at Hartlepool, and Anthony O'Connor, returning to the club on a permanent basis on deadline day. Drew Talbot, who made his debut at Victoria Park, made his Home Park bow at left wing-back.

Accrington, following four straight defeats, rang more changes than the campanologists of Westminster Abbey. After shipping five goals at home Northampton last Saturday, manager John Coleman brought six new faces to the line-up, including Terry Gornell, signed on Monday for his third stint with Stanley, and Scott Davies, who became the eighth man to start a game this season for Accrington in goal.

After a staccato opening ten minutes by both sides, Argyle seemed to get to grips with the firm pitch more quickly than their visitors, and after a flowing move involving Lee, Kelvin Mellor and Reuben Reid, the latter squared neatly for his namesake Bobby Reid, who pulled his shot not far wide of the post.

Shortly afterwards, Bobby's free-kick was headed over by Hartley, as Argyle sought to break down an Accrington side who - with last weekend's 5-1 reverse firmly in their minds - seemed to have keeping it out as their main priority.

Next up to try his luck was Lee, who made a sharp run in behind Accrington and was found by a Reuben Reid flick. He tried to clip past the oncoming goalkeeper, but Davies made a smart stop to maintain the deadlock.

A slow game was being dominated by Argyle, but Davies was not exactly being tested frequently. It seemed that fate would play its usual trick in a double dose. O'Connor had been the best player on the park to that point, but he uncharacteristically left a pass back to Hartley short, and Josh Windass raced in. Fortunately for Argyle Windass chose to shoot rather than play in Piero Mingoia to his right, and the shot deflected of Hartley and spun wide.

Argyle survived the scare, and celebrated their good fortune with the opening goal. Bobby Reid's ball into Alessandra looked to have left the Argyle number seven in a cul-de-sac, but he wriggled free of the attention of Seamus Conneely and fired home past Davies from a very tight angle.

Argyle nearly added a second before the break, with Reuben Reid agonisingly close to getting on the end of Alessandra's centre, but they will have been satisfied to lead against a dogged Stanley side. In fact, it was the twelfth time in thirteen home games that the Pilgrims had led at the interval.

It was not long into the second period that Argyle looked like getting a second. Dogged work by O'Connor released Talbot, whose early left-footed cross was of the highest quality. Reuben Reid's flicked header went wide, but it was a beautiful move.

Argyle were after a killer blow, and Alessandra was proving a handful in the channel. Soon after the previous chance he got a ball across from the right which very nearly found a bursting Olly Lee, and then another Alessandra run saw him shoot over the bar himself.

After a dart around Rob Atkinson which forced the Stanley defender to haul him back - a transgression for which Atkinson went into the book - Alessandra then slotted a through-ball in to Lee, whose square pass seemed to be perfect for Curtis Nelson to tap home. A fantastic saving tackle was all that prevented the skipper doubling Argyle's advantage.