Southampton 0

Argyle 2
Halmosi 30, Paterson 32

ANOTHER away game, another three points: road trips with Argyle this season have been thoroughly enjoyable, and the little jaunt to S Mary's can be added to a list which includes Watford, Sheffield United, Charlton, and?um?let me see?oh yes, Leicester.

Two goals in three first-half minutes, from Péter Halmosi and Jim Paterson, ensured the Pilgrims prevailed over the Saints.

Argyle's left-footed flankmen attacked from left and right around the half-hour mark to send the Saints marching in with two-thirds of nothing at all.

With something of a makeshift team, too.

Russell Anderson cannot have imagined, when he woke up, that he would be making only his third first-team appearance in England since his £1m summer move from Aberdeen.

Whisked off the Sunderland training-ground in mid-morning after the Black Cats agreed a one-month loan for him with Argyle, the Scottish international centre-back was flown to Southampton to link up with his new team-mates just hours before kick-off.

Before last night, Anderson had played just two matches for Sunderland's first team, rupturing his ankle in the second of those, a League Cup tie against Luton.

However, with five recent reserve games under his belt, Luggy felt he was the man to shore up a defence bereft of both Marcel Seip and Mathias Kouo-Doumbe, who reported hamstring problems after training on Monday and is likely to miss about three weeks of action.

Anderson's inclusion was the only change to the starting line-up that had paved the way to a 3-0 home win over FA Cup giantkillers Barnsley a week earlier, meaning that the Pilgrims' other Tuesday Scottish international recruit, Gary Teale started the game on the bench.

Derby County right-winger Teale signed a three-month deal which will keep at Home Park until the end of the season - play-off final excluded.

Jamie Mackie, who netted two quality strikes after coming on as a substitute against the Tykes, was again on bench duty, with Paul Wotton the lone defensive cover.

Saints' new manager Nigel Pearson, whose arrival at St Mary's has been testy, to say the least, made three changes to the 11 that barely started the ignominious FA Cup defeat at Bristol Rovers on Saturday which did for caretakers John Gorman and ex-Pilgrim Jason Dodd.

Wayne Thomas replaced Alexander Ostlund, whose pride was not the only thing injured at the Memorial Ground, at right-back, while midfielders Inigo Idiakez and Jhon Viafara were dropped to the bench to facilitate a little tactical to-and-froing.

Jermaine Wright, who scored Rovers' winner with an inadvertent own goal, moved forward to allow Gregory Vignal to return at left-back, while Marek Saganowski fell back to let Bradley Wright-Phillips, scorer of the Saints' goal in January's 1-1 draw at Home Park, come in and partner Stern John.

The opening exchanges saw plenty of huff and puff but little to threaten the foundations.

Argyle did not make life easy for themselves by conceding a series of free-kicks which allowed Vignal to whip over some pacy crosses that required all hands to the pumps, not to mention heads to the ball.

Away from defensive duties, Argyle forged a neat chance for Jermaine Easter after a couple of neat little triangles involving, first, Steve MacLean and Easter, and then Jimmy Abdou and Easter, but goalkeeper Kelvin Davis was equal to the final effort.

Having let Southampton have an effort, Argyle disdainfully raised a collective is-that-all-you've-got eyebrow, crunched through the gears, and ripped the Saints apart.

Southampton were not helped by an injury to centre-back Darren Powell which necessitated a reshuffle that took Wright away from the defensive midfield job he had been doing on MacLean.

With Jason Euell unable to shackle MacLean as well, Argyle suddenly found space. More importantly, they exploited it.

With Wright back at right-back, the ubiquitous Lilian Nalis played the ball in behind him with such precision that Halmosi did not even have to break stride as he collected it on a diagonal run that took him into the Saints' penalty area.

Halmosi almost had too much time to decide whether to play the ball low and hard across Davis or high and hard inside his near post. He chose the latter. Looked more spectacular, anyway.

The magical Magyar almost repeated the dose seconds later as Southampton were exposed down the same flank. This time, the ball flashed just the wrong side of the post, riffling the side-netting.

Undeterred, Argyle tried the opposite wing, working the ball out to Paterson on the right. Southampton's shellshocked defence backed off, backed off, and then backed off some more.

Paterson, could barely believe his luck and took advantage of the time and space to measure a low left-footed shot that curled inside Davis's right-hand post. The Southampton custodian looked as though he expected the ball to pass the other side.

Southampton, and a half-empty St Mary's, looked in a shabby state. The crowd jeering, the players arguing with each other, the Green Army laughing with glee.

The half-time message will have been 'Beware' - not only did Argyle allow the Saints to have their first shot of the game just before the interval, through Stern John, a fairly tame effort, but Southampton showed at Stoke recently that they are capable of stunning second-half comebacks.

The home side reshaped, with right-winger Adam Hammill coming on for Wright-Phillips and Saganowski pushing forward, and started the second period with something approaching vigour.

Again, though, Argyle stood firm and nearly extended their lead when a sweet passing move ended with MacLean teeing up Abdou for a rising shot from distance that just cleared Davis's crossbar.

If that high and wide effort was excusable, Thomas spurned an opportunity to bring his side back into the match that required the Queen's pardon.

When the ball fell to the former Torquay man at the far post, he had the time and space to halve the deficit, but, displaying a defender's eye for a goal and hoofed the ball into row double Z.

The miss galvanised the crowd and lifted the players, and Argyle had reason to be grateful that John and Saganowski did not get too close to goal before letting off shots more in hope, than expectation.

Teale made his bow with 25 minutes to go, in place of countryman Paterson, but it was fellow Scot MacLean who made the next telling contribution, wriggling free to loose off a shot that Davis went full length to palm the ball around the post.

Teale then tried to play in Paul Connolly, who was narrowly beaten to the through-ball by the on-rushing Davis, before Mackie came on with enough time, on his own clock, to score about one and a half goals.

He nearly scored his third goal in about 20 minutes with a drive that had Davis at thin air as the ball whistled wide of the goal.

Alas, it was not to be.

Oh, and by the way, as the Green Army kept reminding everyone, from Leicester to Southampton, there's only one Paul Sturrock.

Southampton (4-4-2): 1 Kelvin Davis; 3 Wayne Thomas, 6 Darren Powell (16 Jhon Viafara 22), 35 Andrew Davies, 21 Gregory Vignal; 4 Marek Saganowski, 10 Jermaine Wright, 11 Andrew Surman, 15 Jason Euell (27 Inigo Idiakez 77); 31 Stern John, 8 Bradley Wright-Philips (14 Adam Hammill half-time). Substitutes (not used): 17 David McGoldrick, 25 Michael Poke (gk).

Booked:

Argyle (4-4-2): 23 Luke McCormick; 2 Paul Connolly, 5 Krisztián Timár, 21 Russell Anderson, 18 Gary Sawyer; 3 Jim Paterson (7 Gary Teale 69), 26 Nadjim Abdou, 4 Lilian Nalis (capt), 16 Péter Halmosi; 9 Steve MacLean, 36 Jermaine Easter (25 Jamie Mackie 85). Substitutes (not used): 1 Romain Larrieu (gk), 14 Rory Fallon, 15 Paul Wotton.

Booked: Connolly 45.

Referee: Gavin Ward (Surrey).

Attendance: 17,806 (1,060).