Plymouth opened up a six-point cushion on the relegation zone as they blew Coventry away in a thrilling first half.
Coventry stunned by first-half burst
Plymouth opened up a six-point cushion on the relegation zone as they blew Coventry away in a thrilling first half at Home Park.
Young striker Ashley Barnes opened the scoring in the 15th minute as he reacted quickly following a deflection to head home from six yards.
Three goals in a 10-minute burst then settled the match as Jamie Mackie, Alan Judge and Marcel Seip all found the target before the interval.
Chris Coleman's side were guilty of sluggish defending for the opener and it was a similar story 11 minutes later as the Pilgrims doubled their lead.
Goalkeeper Keiren Westwood misjudged a flighted ball into his area and his fumbled take fell straight to striker Mackie who swept the ball home.
Plymouth smelt blood and on-loan Blackburn midfielder Judge slammed home a ferocious 27th-minute volley from the edge of the area.
More poor defending led to the third goal as centre-back Seip ghosted in behind the Coventry defence to head home Chris Barker's clipped cross to make it 4-0.
Despite the humiliating scoreline, the visitors had goalscoring chances of their own.
But they failed to capitalise as Kevin Thornton's drive forced a brilliant reaction save from Romain Larrieu, while Scott Dann's header clipped the top of the bar.
Stern words
Coleman must have had stern words for his side during the interval as the visitors were much improved in the second half.
Twelve minutes after the break, they should have grabbed a consolation when full-back Daniel Fox's corner picked out Ben Turner but his close-range header failed to trouble Larrieu.
Larrieu was called into action in the 70th minute when he flung himself to his left to tip Fox's dipping free-kick round the post and out for a corner.
The home side were clearly prepared to settle for four goals and a clean sheet and rarely reached the high-octane level on display in the opening half.
But they came close to extending their lead in the 72nd minute when Carl Fletcher's point-blank header was superbly kept out by substitute keeper Andy Marshall.
There were further late chances for the Sky Blues but Clinton Morrison, Thornton and Fox all failed to reduce the deficit.
