OUR youngsters' win in this Devon derby at City's well-appointed, if windswept, Cat & Fiddle training ground, keeps them on course to win the Puma Youth Alliance's South-west Conference.

There is now a nine point gap between Argyle and their nearest challengers, Swansea City, who were without a game over the weekend - and both clubs still have four matches left.

But the quality of last Saturday's performance came as a disappointment to head of youth coaching, Mike Pejic, after his protégées had played so well, both collectively and individually, for the Reserves at Bournemouth the previous midweek, despite being on the wrong end of a 2-1 score-line.

However, they struggled to find their rhythm in difficult, windy conditions. And the Grecians may have been bottom of the table with only one win and five goals to their credit, but their players were well pumped-up to topple their local rivals - and the home side's hopes soared when they snatched a 26th minute lead with a headed goal.

The Young Pilgrims were out of luck two minutes later, when striker Toby Davis's close range shot bounced off the post, but they were not to be denied, and two goals in the seven minutes before half-time eventually swung the game Argyle's way.

First central midfielder Shane Duggan netted with a side-footed shot from 12 yards after a fine run by right winger Joe Mason in the 38th minute; and then a deep free kick from the right, taken by left winger Damian McCrory, was headed home by centre-back Ashley Hodgkinson.

Argyle's defending improved appreciably in the second half, and our youngsters gradually took a strangle-hold over proceedings, thanks to a 56th minute penalty converted by Duggan, followed by a tap-in at the far post by McCrory at the end of an impressive, sweeping bout of passing, started by substitute right back Shane White and carried on by Davis and Mason eleven minutes later, to complete the 'double' over our local rivals.

Our youngsters' next Puma Youth Alliance fixture is on Wednesday, when they travel to Oxford University's Ifley Road sports ground for a re-arranged game against Oxford United (ko 2pm), but they are unlikely to be at full strength as the fixture clashed with a re-arranged Reserve match at Forest Green Rovers on Wednesday evening (ko 7pm).

Then they have a home game against Hereford United on Saturday, when Plymouth Parkway's Bolitho Park will be available to stage the match (ko 11am) - thereby giving supporters a rare opportunity to see our youngsters in action here in Plymouth.

They are also playing at Bolitho Park the following Saturday (April 19) against Swindon Town (ko 11am), so supporters could take in that game on their way to the First Team's Championship clash with Preston North End at Home Park - before finishing their campaign with an away game at Swansea on April 26 (ko 11am).

Next weekend our Centre of Excellence schoolboy teams play a full schedule of games against Cheltenham Town -- on Saturday our U16's travel north to play at their Quat Goose Lane training ground, and on the Sunday the U15's, U14's, U10's and U9's make the same journey, whilst the U13's, U12's and U11's host the Robbins at Plymstock School (all games ko at 11am).