Argyle 4
Ifil 11, Easter 57, Maclean 60, Sawyer 68
Colchester 1
Lisbie 64
ARGYLE winged back on to the Championship play-off rails with a comprehensive deconstruction of relegation-haunted Colchester.
Using the width of Home Park, wingers Péter Halmosi and Gary Teale were to the fore as second-half goals from Jermaine Easter, Steve MacLean and - get this - a first-ever strike for left-back Gary Sawyer saw off the Essex men.
Colchester, distinctly second best, had gone behind in the 11th minute when Teale's cross had been headed into his own goal by Phil Ifil - another full-back scoring for the first time - and they enjoyed only a fleeting moment of relief, when Kevin Lisbie netted a consolation after they were already three down.
Despite a 3-0 defeat by West Bromwich Albion at the weekend, Paul Sturrock had stayed faithful to the starting line-up that he had sent out at the Hawthorns; the same 11, indeed, that had achieved a 3-1 win over Burnley in their last Home Park outing.
Colchester, who had been beaten four days earlier at home by a Sylvan Ebanks-Blake strike for Wolves, made three changes.
Béla Balogh came in at full-back to allow talented midfielder Johnnie Jackson to take up the centre-of-the-park position in which he is most effective, alongside full debutant Dean Hammond, the former Brighton captain.
Striker Scott Vernon was also recalled, in place of Clive Platt, who was relegated to a bench that also included his former MK Dons forward partner Izale McLeod, on loan at Layer Road from Charlton.
Karl Duguid did not make it after bruising his foot against Wolves, while Kevin Watson was also benched.
Luggy had been bemoaning his players' inability to work the ball to his wingers at the Hawthorns, and the message had obviously lodged in the Greens' grey matter.
After Paul Connolly had wandered up field and drifted inside into waters relatively uncharted in his 150-plus game Argyle career, the ball found Gary Teale in the sort of space that has wingers licking their lips.
A whipped ball across the face of the Colchester goal found no takers, however, until it reached the far post, where Ifil copped an eyeful of the exquisite delivery and, in stooping to deny the preying Péter Halmosi, headed into his own goal.
The Pilgrims' joy at their early breakthrough was tempered almost immediately by a yellow card shown to Krisztián Timár, which was the tenth of his season and rules him out of next week's trip to Scunthorpe and the subsequent Westcountry derby at Bristol City.
The humongous Hungarian had been teetering on the brink of a ban for several matches, so, on the Russian Roulette Principle, his number was bound to come up sooner or later.
It would, however, have been more palatable had not his mistimed tackle on Kem Izzet been, not only his first foul of the game, but the first by anyone in a green shirt, combined with the fact that an agricultural Colchester had been kicking lumps out of Jermaine Easter for the opening ten minutes.
Teale was making the first real impact in his third start since his three-month loan from Derby. Another, first-time, cross hard-driven in caused Colchester goalkeeper Dean Gerken to palm the ball away, but, luckily for him, it fell equidistant from Easter and MacLean, who both left the ball to each other.
The runaway Ram then dropped deeper to waft over a higher delivery, which was about half a foot too high for Easter to get a powerful enough header to fully trouble Gerken.
With the Pilgrims getting the ball wide (under orders), and Colchester struggling for much apart from a hefty physical presence, another goal always looked possible.
Just to keep the Pilgrims' keen, they remained a threat on the breakaway, and Vernon wasted a glorious opportunity to equalise 15 minutes before the interval. To be fair, he created the chance for himself with a determined and skilful run that took out Russell Anderson, Gary Sawyer and Timár before the end failed to match the approach and he lofted his final shot high into the Devonport.
The Devonport was also witness to most of the action in the opening moments of the second half: more width, more delivery into the box; more striving for end product.
It was a great relief when it came, to no-one more than the scorer. Easter has earned great plaudits for his unselfish work since his arrival earlier in the season, but, with only two goals to show for his efforts, lacks the return he inarguably deserves.
A succession of blinding saves from goalkeepers, snatched shots, just-wide drives, had left him frustrated, and not a little lacking in confidence, so he will not care that - somewhat inevitably - his drought came to an end with a not altogether intentional deflection of Halmosi's drive after an Argyle blitz that left Colchester shellshocked.
Number three followed three minutes later, after Ifil was pulled up - and booked - for a foul on Halmosi (so what was the Werstcountry like then, Phil?) MacLean, who had netted his only other Argyle goal with a pluperfect free-kick, bettered that with a curling drive that never went more than a yard off the ground as it arced around the wall and beat Gerken on his left hand.
Lisbie briefly diverted the one-way traffic with a fine individual goal, before the surprise scorer of the night quickly restored the Greens' three-goal advantage.
Perhaps no one was more shocked than Sawyer himself to find himself on the end of Connolly's right-to-left cross, but, having charged up from left-back, he had enough composure to squeeze the ball home across Gerken with his trusty left peg.
The minimum requirement had been to win handsomely and Argyle surpassed that request easily.
Job done.
Argyle (4-4-2): 23 Luke McCormick; 2 Paul Connolly, 5 Krisztián Timár (19 Marcel Seip 80), 21 Russell Anderson, 18 Gary Sawyer; 7 Gary Teale (6 Chris Clark 80), 26 Nadjim Abdou, 4 Lilian Nalis (capt), 16 Péter Halmosi; 9 Steve MacLean (14 Rory Fallon 72), 36 Jermaine Easter. Substitutes (not used): 15 Paul Wotton, 25 Jamie Mackie.
Booked: Timár 13.
Colchester United (4-4-2): 1 Dean Gerken (gk); 18 Philip Ifil, 5 Chris Coyne (capt), 19 Adam Virgo, 21 Béla Balogh; 22 Dean Hammond, 10 Kemal Izzet, 4 Johnnie Jackson, 14 Kevin McLeod (9 Clive Platt 65); 20 Kevin Lisbie, 24 Scott Vernon (25 Izale McLeod 65, 30 Medi Elito 77). Substitutes (not used): 6 Kevin Watson, 31 Ademole Bankole (gk).
Booked: Balogh 22, Ifil 61.
Referee: Mick Russell (Hertfordshire).
Attendance: 11,562 (119 away).
