West Bromwich Albion 3
Gera 45, Miller 60, Bednar 67

Argyle 0

THE Championship's best attack took advantage of a below-par display from the division's best defence to hold sway at the Hawthorns.

A gifted goal in the last minute of the first half from substitute Zoltan Gera and a complete fluke by Ishmael Miller early in the second, set West Brom on their way, before a third from Roman Bednar rubbed salt in the wounds against a temporarily shellshocked Pilgrims.

With a home game to come against Colchester on Tuesday, and another Home Park outing next Saturday against Sheffield United, what is important is not this defeat, but how Paul Sturrock's bravehearts respond to it. There is still much - some might say everything - to play for this season.

Ask Bristol City. Earlier this campaign, they took a 6-0 doing by Ipswich Town. Instead of ending their aspirations, the drubbing merely galvanised Gary Johnson's men - and look at them now.

Luggy had opted to keep faith with the same starting line-up that had beaten fellow play-off hopefuls Burnley 3-1 seven days earlier to register a fourth successive Championship victory.

Loan signings Russell Anderson and Gary Teale continued for the McPilgrims, at centre-back and right-midfield respectively, despite the return to the squad of Marcel Seip and Chris Clark, both of who began the afternoon on the substitutes' bench.

West Brom manager Tony Mowbray had recalled midfielder Filipe Teixeira, Argyle's destroyer in the first game of Luggy's second spell, for Gera, presumably in the hope that the Portugeezer could inflict similar damage as he had done in the Baggies' 2-1 November victory at Home Park.

There was a second change in the home side's midfield to the initial 11 that had gone down 2-1 to Hull at the Hawthorns the previous weekend, Northern Ireland international Chris Brunt, who enjoyed Luggy's tutelage when the pair of them were in Sheffield Wednesday's employ, coming in for James Morrison.

Mowbray was unable to call upon the Championship's leading scorer, Kevin Phillips, who succumbed to a knee injury, and chose one highly talented loan signing, Manchester City's Ishmael Miller, over another, Luke Moore, of Aston Villa, as Phillips' replacement.

Mixing his metaphors as only he can, Luggy had warned his players to expect a whirlwind from the wounded animal that was the Baggies, but Argyle were greeted by something more like a gentle midsummer's zephyr off Plymouth Sound.

The most either side had to show for 15 minutes of disciplined effort was a half-break from the home side, when Miller, who is the size of an ox, showed a similarly bovine touch to knock a decent pass too far in front of him and allow Luke McCormick to soak up the danger.

Teixeira lasted less than a quarter of the game when, after a fairly innocuous clash with Gary Sawyer, he was stretchered off. With Magyars' captain Gera coming on, the switch could barely be said to have weakened the Baggies. In fact, it changed the game.

Indeed, soon after, they fashioned the first clear opportunity of the game when Anderson dived in on Bednar's header to let Miller free. Although the big man got the ball onto his favoured left foot, his calculations were slightly out as his measured shot failed to curl in enough and went wide of McCormick's right-hand post.

Argyle were not without their moments, and West Brom survived a muted shout for a penalty when Robert Koren appeared to handle a cross from Sawyer that Teale diverted with his head.

Then the Pilgrims failed to make the most of a break that saw Jermaine Easter break forward with Péter Halmosi and Steve Maclean offering options either way, but the Welshman could find neither team-mate.

Mainly, though, we witnessed a stern, and admirably regimented defensive display from the men in the yellow, with Anderson, in particular, a tower of self-contained strength.

Anderson's partner, Krizstián Timár, was equally resolute on a rare afternoon when he faced two strikers, both of whom were bigger in all respects than he is. Except, unquestionably, heart.

The Timárnator came precious close to giving the Pilgrims the lead when, from the first of three successive corners, he powered in at the back stick and was superbly denied from cashing in on Teale's delivery by Bednar's brave stooping header.

The Pilgrims appeared to be coasting to half-time on level terms when a piece of defending that Sturrock, in his calmer moments, will no doubt describe as 'zany', gifted the Baggies the lead.

There will be collective responsibility, to be sure, for allowing Bednar to break free and set up Gera, for that is the spirit in the Argyle dressing-room, but Jimmy Abdou spurned the opportunity to clear the ball and should have taken it, rather than present Gera with a chance that he took with alacrity.

The dynamics of the game, not to mention the half-time team-talks, changed in an instant, even though Argyle nearly found an equaliser in time added on to time added on, when Lilian Nalis headed another Teale corner into the side-netting at the near post.

Albion began the second half in the whirlwind manner that had been expected an hour earlier, and a last-minute lunge by Paul Connolly deflected a shot by Miller's trusty left peg over his crossbar for a corner, from which Leon Barnett sent a header wide.

Argyle, boosted by a particularly loud Green army, responded with a sortie that led to three consecutive corners, even if they achieved nothing but to make the Baggies' defence work hard.

Albion, though, killed the game off on the hour when Miller, having spurned a gift, manufactured their second with a bizarre goal that was utterly unplanned.

First, he was thwarted by McCormick after being threaded through behind the defence following another Abdou brainstorm further up the park, the Argyle goalkeeper toe away the ball with pluperfect timing to tackle the big man midstride.

Even as he Miller was contemplating his misfortune, his luck turned in a blink. A nothing ball into the Argyle area was going nowhere until Miller, back to goal, stuck out a long limb and lofted the ball high and towards the Argyle goal. It arced in the perfect parabola to take it over the head of McCormick: if he meant it, he is an absolute genius.

To rub salt into the wounds, Albion immediately threw on Moore for Miller as Luggy, with at least half an eye on future battles, threw in the white towel by withdrawing Timár (nine yellows), Halmosi and Teale, in favour of Seip, Clark, and Jamie Mackie.

Bednar made it 3-0, scuffing one in at the near post, to begin 20 minutes of relaxed, effortless, showboating by a team that, when it is in the mood, is the best footballing side in the Championship.

To Argyle's credit, they kept going long after other sides would have folded further, and were denied another shout for a penalty when Mackie was flattened.

Uriah Rennie waved away the claims as Argyle waved goodbye, temporarily one suspects, to a play-off place.

West Bromwich Albion (4-4-2): 1 Dean Kiely; 2 Carl Hoefkens, 14 Martin Albrechtsen, 4 Leon Barnett, 3 Paul Robinson; 20 Filipe Teixeira (11 Zoltan Gera18), 8 Jonathan Greening (capt), 7 Robert Koren, 29 Chris Brunt; 9 Roman Bednar (12 Do-Hoen Kim 72), 17 Ishmael Miller (24 Luke Moore 60). Substitutes (not used): 10 Craig Beattie, 18 Shelton Martis.

Booked: Barnett 90.

Argyle (4-4-2): 23 Luke McCormick; 2 Paul Connolly, 5 Krisztián Timár (19 Marcel Seip 60), 21 Russell Anderson, 18 Gary Sawyer; 7 Gary Teale (25 Jamie Mackie 60), 26 Nadjim Abdou, 4 Lilian Nalis (capt), 16 Péter Halmosi (6 Chris Clark 70); 9 Steve MacLean, 36 Jermaine Easter. Substitutes (not used): 1 Romain Larrieu (gk), 15 Paul Wotton.

Referee: Uriah Rennie (Yorkshire).

Attendance: 22,503 (2,500 away est).