Plymouth Argyle 4-2 Exeter City: Ryan Hardie’s late double sees Pilgrims win Devon derby

Ryan Hardie took his tally to nine goals for the season in all competitions

Two goals from substitute Ryan Hardie saw League One leaders Plymouth Argyle beat rivals Exeter City 4-2 in a high quality Devon derby at Home Park.

Archie Collins side-footed Exeter ahead from close range, but the lead lasted barely two minutes before Morgan Whittaker’s well-taken equaliser.

Sam Nombe restored Exeter’s lead shortly after the break following some fine work by Jay Stansfield, but again Plymouth struck back soon after thanks to Bali Mumba’s powerful long-range effort.

But substitute Hardie’s well-taken goal with 20 minutes left put Argyle ahead for the first time, before the Scot calmly slotted home a pass from Whittaker late on to seal bragging rights for the green side of Devon.

Argyle’s ninth successive home league win took them four points clear at the top of the table, while Exeter are 10th.

The meeting between the two Devon rivals was the first for more than three years, with fans from both sides making up for lost time with a raucous atmosphere at a packed Home Park.

Exeter, who left creative talisman Jevani Brown on the bench, had the better of the early exchanges as Stansfield saw a fourth-minute shot from eight yards blocked by Dan Scarr while his strike partner Nombe had a close-range header saved by Michael Cooper soon after.

Mumba had a 20th-minute shot palmed over for Argyle before Whittaker went close with a blocked effort.

Yet it was City who went ahead from the resulting corner as Stansfield broke down the left on the counter-attack and his pass across the six-yard box found the unmarked Collins at the far post.

Argyle were immediately level as a delicate chip into the box by Adam Randell was superbly controlled by Swansea City loanee Whittaker before he shot low into the far corner.

Exeter’s forwards looked dangerous throughout and they combined to put the Grecians ahead once more as Stansfield capitalised on a mistake by Scarr before placing a perfectly-weighted reverse pass to Nombe, who got around Cooper and side-footed home.

Swansea City loanee Morgan Whittaker added a third goal in his last four League One games to the two assists he laid on for Hardie

But again new manager Gary Caldwell’s side could not hold onto the lead as Joe Edwards pounced on a half-cleared corner before laying the ball off to reigning EFL young player of the month Mumba, who unleashed an unstoppable low drive from more than 25 yards out.

Exeter could have gone ahead three minutes before Hardie scored as Cooper made a fine low save from Collins’ effort from the edge of the box.

But when Hardie did find the net he did it in style – the superb Whittaker threaded a pinpoint pass through three Exeter defenders and the forward took one touch before firing past Jamal Blackman.

Harry Kite cracked the Plymouth cross bar with a long-range effort five minutes later, but that was as good as it got in City’s hunt for a late equaliser as Hardie latched on to another fine Whittaker pass before producing a deft finish to send the majority of the 16,500 fans packed into the ground into raptures.

Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher told BBC Sport:

“It was a good local derby, two teams desperate to win it.

“I think it was played at a good tempo and probably in a good sprit as well.

“They probably started better, won a few more second balls than we did early on and got the lead, and we’ve responded brilliantly a minute later.

“The character our players have shown again to dig each other out of a bit of a mess and produce moments of quality to go on and win the game, it’s really good and I’m so pleased for them.”

Exeter City manager Gary Caldwell told BBC Sport:

“I’ll never be happy losing football matches, but I’m really happy with how the players performed.

“I felt like we were in control of the game for large periods, they changed their shape to 4-4-2 and really opened the game up.

“That was the one part we could be better at, at that point we could have controlled the game in the middle of the pitch with the overload we had in there and we didn’t do that and we got punished for it.”

Line-ups Plymouth

Formation 3-4-2-1

1Cooper

5Wilson6Scarr22Galloway

8Edwards20Randell4Houghton17Mumba

19Whittaker11Ennis

16Cosgrove

Substitutes

Exeter

Formation 3-4-1-2

18Blackman

12Key26Sweeney5Hartridge

2Caprice16Kite8Collins3Sparkes

14Dieng

9Stansfield10Nombe

Substitutes

Referee: Charles Breakspear Live Text