Two solo goals in as many minutes ensured Plymouth started life in the Championship with a 3-1 home win over Neil Warnock’s Huddersfield.
Attacking midfielder Bali Mumba swept in from the left with the wind at his back to cut through the Terriers defence before beating visiting keeper Lee Nicholls with a well-placed low shot on 74 minutes.
Two minutes later it was left to Argyle’s Scottish striker Ryan Hardie to go solo and finish crisply past Nicholls for his 50th goal in green.
Those goals turned the game on its head.
Argyle’s two big summer signings Mumba and Morgan Whittaker had combined to give Argyle a sixth-minute lead.
Quick thinking by Hardie enabled Mumba, returning to Plymouth from Norwich permanently for £1million after helping Argyle win League One last season while on loan, to drive into the Huddersfield penalty area.
His cross was headed by Rarmani Edmonds-Green and then skywards by Terriers skipper Michal Helik. The ball fell to Whittaker – the former Swansea loanee similarly returning on a permanent £1million deal – who beat Nicholls at the far post.
Nicholls had to be at his best six minutes later as Callum Wright’s clever footwork put Hardie in on goal down the right and he slipped the ball to Whittaker, whose first-time arrowed shot was well saved by the diving Nicholls at the foot of the upright.
Huddersfield’s best chance of the half fell to Josh Koroma midway through the first half and with only new home keeper Conor Hazard to beat, the Terriers forward swept the ball down the outside of the goal.
The Greens – with playmakers Adam Randell and Whittaker prominent – continued to press for a second goal but Huddersfield continued to grow into the game and levelled in the last minute of first-half stoppage time.
Argyle failed to clear their lines following a corner and Brahima Diarra let fly with a shot from the edge of the box that beat former Celtic keeper Hazard – another summer import – and smashed off the foot of the post. Helik was first to react and fired home into an unguarded net.
There was a strong wind gusting around Home Park and Diarra used the gale to good effect to almost beat Hazard with a wind-assisted strike from the right, which the keeper managed to fingertip around the far post at full stretch.
The Irish keeper had a lucky let-off in the 58th minute when he managed to recover after being robbed by Diarra.
Mumba found himself in space on the edge of the box on 66 minutes but got under the shot and with the wind still swirling the ball flew over the bar.
Minutes later he scored a brilliant individual goal, soon emulated by Hardie to wrap up the points.
