Argyle 0 Accrington 1: Match report

ARGYLE'S promotion charge was dealt a reality check in the form of a flying Slovakian.

After pre-season Argyle trialist Jordan Clark provided a variant on the returning player rule, scoring the game's only goal, as early as the eighth minute, the game saw an increasingly dominant Argyle performance, but every time the Pilgrims managed to breach Stanley's tough defence, they could not find a way past Accrington goalkeeper Marek Rodak, who repeatedly flew through the air to prevent everything Argyle could at him - and to the side of him, and above him...

Stanley held on to increase their unbeaten run to 12 games, while Argyle looked agonisingly at a set of results that saw only one other team in the top eight lose - and that was Blackpool being beaten by fifth-placed Luton Town.

Argyle boss Derek Adams had opted to stick to the same starting 11 for a fourth straight game, and the game seemed to still be in its feeling-out stages when Sean McConville clipped in a left-wing free-kick that Clark glanced inside the post.

Accrington took an opportunity to try to hurt a shell-shocked Argyle with Shay McCartan bursting through the middle far to early, past a seas of dangling, uncertain Argyle legs. Luke McCormick made an excellent save to prevent McCartan, who then got the ball back, and unconvincingly dived to try to win a penalty. Referee Darren Deadman saw through the act, and cautioned McCartan.

Clark then crossed into Billy Kee, who headed straight at McCormick, and it took Argyle the best part of the first half an hour of the game to really get going.

When the Pilgrims hit their straps, they really did not want the half-time break to come. First Jimmy Spencer wriggled into space with terrific persistence, but his cut back found naught but unoccupied space.