A VISITING Plymouth Argyle squad awash with first-team talent made sure Newton Abbot Spurs were given a major workout under their new floodlights at the Recreation Ground on Tuesday night, writes Chris Rogers.

The visit served a dual purpose for Argyle manager Peter Reid, who used the visit to give several senior players match-time as well as helping to officially switch on the new lights at the Carlsberg South West Peninsula League club.

Goalkeeper Romain Larrieu, defenders Jim Paterson, Marcel Seip and Kari Arneson, midfielder Anton Peterlin and striker Bradley Wright-Phillips all lined up to face Spurs.

The fact that they only returned to Plymouth with a 3-0 win was largely down to the faultless effort and workrate on display from the home side.

Last-ditch Spurs defending stopped Argyle going ahead before Wright-Phillips netted the opener on the half hour.

Ten minutes prior to his goal, the former Southampton striker rose to head a corner goalwards, only for home left-back Ashley Webber to clear off the line.

Defender Jamie Dyson also had to hack the ball away from the line just a few seconds later.

Wright-Phillips nipped around Spurs goalkeeper Neil Comerford to tuck away the first goal after 30 minutes, and could easily have had a hat-trick before half-time had his glanced header and dinked 20-yarder not fallen inches wide of Comerford's right post.

The closest the hosts got to getting on the scoresheet was through striker Adam Dyson's close-range effort that was well blocked by Romain Larrieu.

Peterlin doubled the Greens' lead 10 minutes after the restart, blasting home from the edge of the box after a neat lay-off from Wright-Phillips.

Youngster Matt Rickard put the game beyond doubt when he beat the offside trap to fire one past Comerford, who had denied the replacement striker only seconds earlier with a fine one-handed stop.

In fact, that was one of several fine Comerford saves in the second half — other notable occasions saw him bravely thwart substitute Liam Head at the young striker's feet, before getting a fingertip to divert a long-range drive onto his crossbar.