Delight for Kevin Nolan after 'fantastic' Cobblers romp to impressive Plymouth win

Cobblers were second best in a scrappy first half at Home Park but they were dominant in the second and cruised to wonderful away victory thanks to Tom Eaves’ superb header, Elliott List’s tap-in and Jordan Willis’ bullet header.

Plymouth, now second-from-bottom in League One, struggled to mount any kind of response once behind and their cause was hardly helped by Lorent Tolaj’s brainless red card. The Pilgrims striker saw red for lashing out at Michael Forbes off the ball shortly after Eaves’ opener.

The win meant a controversial first half penalty incident did not matter. Cobblers were awarded a spot-kick after only eight minutes as Terry Taylor and Bali Mumba tangled in the box but the referee then changed his mind following a conversation with his linesman.

"It’s a fantastic afternoon and I thought it was very well deserved in the end,” said Nolan. “It wasn’t pretty in the first half but we knew it wouldn’t be after their great result at Port Vale last weekend.

"It was always going to be tough because a win gives you some confidence and a bit of a bounce and you could see that in how Plymouth started, but I thought we managed certain moments well, especially the penalty incident.

"We get a penalty and then he changes his mind after 70, 80 seconds, and there were some strange decisions today, but he got the main one right and the players didn’t let it impact them.

"It’s a fantastic header by Tom and we’ve spoken about getting him in the box more. I was right behind it and as soon as the ball left his head you could see it floating into the far corner.

“That got us started and I was really, really pleased for the players and the fans because it’s a brilliant away win.”