Plymouth Argyle 2-0 Bristol Rovers: Pilgrims close in on League One promotion with impressive win
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Niall Ennis' superb overhead kick was his 13th goal of the season
Plymouth Argyle moved to within touching distance of automatic promotion from League One after a dominant win over 10-man Bristol Rovers.
The visitors had Antony Evans sent off after 26 minutes for a second yellow card as the Pilgrims created five excellent chances in the first half without finding the net.
But it took just five minutes after the break for Argyle to make the breakthrough as Niall Ennis controlled James Wilson's floated ball into the box with his chest before unleashing an overhead kick into the bottom corner.
Macauley Gillesphey headed in the second soon after as Argyle continued to exert total control in the game as Rovers failed to muster a single shot on target.
The win means Argyle are now five points ahead of third-placed Sheffield Wednesday and need just two points from their final two matches to go up.
A win against either Burton Albion on Saturday or at Port Vale on the final day of the season will guarantee promotion to the Championship.
Rovers remain in 15th place but have a game in hand on most of the sides around them.
It is 19 years since Plymouth Argyle were last in this position in the third tier - back then in what was Division Two the Pilgrims won the title after 44 games as late goals from Mickey Evans and David Friio got them a 2-0 win over runners-up Queens Park Rangers at Home Park.
Victory in game 44 on Tuesday puts Argyle on 95 points - more than surpassing the 90 they got in the 2003-04 season as Steven Schumacher emulates the job done by Paul Sturrock and Bobby Williamson.
Callum Wright put an early header wide of the far post after finding himself unmarked in the Rovers box, while at the other end a John Marquis cross was hacked away by Dan Scarr in what proved to be the visitors' only effort of note in the opening period.
Danny Mayor saw a fierce near-post effort well saved by James Belshaw after 25 minutes before Evans - who was already on a yellow card for an earlier foul on Bali Mumba - felled Mayor on the edge of the box and was dismissed.
Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher shouted 'one more win' to fans at full-time
Argyle began to exert their advantage as Mumba, Wilson and Ennis all had chances before Rovers manager Joey Barton was booked after remonstrating with the officials.
Plymouth skipper Joe Edwards had a diving header whistle past the near post while Jarell Quansah's excellent block prevented Wright from giving Argyle the lead soon after as the home side failed to convert their chances.
But they did not have to wait long for Ennis' spectacular opener and could have been further ahead had Belshaw not made superb saves from Wright and Edwards soon after.
Gillesphey's flicked header from a corner relieved any tension in the crowd as the Pilgrims continued to pile forward.
Mumba - who was named League One young player of the season on Sunday - excelled down the left with his dribbling and work rate and saw another effort saved while he teed up substitute Finn Azaz who side-footed an effort wide from 12 yards.
Argyle saw out the final quarter with ease as more than 16,000 fans in a packed Home Park celebrated what will surely be a promotion to the second tier.
Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher told BBC Sport:
"I'm really pleased that we won the game, that was the objective before it.
"I felt for the first 25 minutes it was a very good game, I thought the two teams looked sharp.
"We continued to try and pass the ball, we created loads of chances in the first half, we just didn't manage to stick one away or make the right pass.
"At half-time we said, 'Let's try and keep the game flowing, don't let it stop too much if we can, don't make too many fouls, and when we get an opportunity can someone show a bit of quality to take it,' and my God didn't Niall Ennis show some quality for that goal.
"We know that there's still work to do, we know that we're not over the line yet, we need one more win, and if we can get that at home on Saturday we can all go away and have the best summer ever."
Bristol Rovers manager Joey Barton told BBC Radio Bristol:
"It was always going to be tough, they're top of the table for a reason after the amount of games played, so we knew we'd have to be on our game today.
"We were fine up until the two challenges really, I thought the first one was a yellow card and once you're on that yellow card you just can't run the risk.
"He's a young player, he's let the lads down there and he'll be disappointed - no-one will be feeling it more than Antony.
"After that we had a bit of a mountain to climb, got to half-time, weathered a bit of a storm, I changed it at half-time to try and give us more of a defensive platform and it didn't work."