Wednesday 1 January 2014 20:32, UK
Plymouth boss John Sheridan saluted the desire of his players after they saw off Devon rivals Torquay 2-0 at Home Park.
Argyle took a 60th-minute lead through on-loan Sheffield Wednesday striker Caolan Lavery, whose strike beat diving United goalkeeper Michael Poke at his near post for pace. The Pilgrims surged further ahead in the 85th minute when an acrobatic Lewis Alessandra used his chest to convert a right-wing cross by skipper Conor Hourihane. Sheridan said: "At the moment our desire to get something out of the game is really good. I think we've got good enough players in the team, and we've shown a little bit of consistency. "I just asked the lads to pick it up five or 10 per cent at half-time. I think we should have scored one or two goals in the first half but didn't take our chances. But I think the players responded to that, so full credit to them. "We were quality in the second half. We got them on the back foot and our front four caused them problems. That stretched the game and enabled us to get higher up the pitch. Again, it was a great team performance. "Again, Caolan's shown great anticipation and quality for his goal. I think we were pushing for that goal before we scored it and afterwards we kept them on the back foot. "I don't really like changing the team, and even at 2-0 I wanted to keep things compact. The conditions were difficult and I thought we played them really well. "We kept creating chances - corners and crosses into the box will always cause the opposition problems. "The second goal was a great goal as well. A great cross from Conor and a great finish from Lewi."