Ibrahim Cissoko is the first player to score more than once in a game for Plymouth Argyle this season
Ibrahim Cissoko scored twice as Plymouth Argyle beat a spirited Luton Town 3-1 in a tense Championship encounter at Home Park.
Rami Al Hajj needed just eight minutes of his first start to get his first Argyle goal as he curled into the top corner from the edge of the box after some good interplay.
Plymouth spurned further chances to increase their lead before the break while Elijah Adebayo should have levelled for the Hatters.
Substitute Ibrahim Cissoko blasted the hosts further ahead with 20 minutes to go, only for Victor Moses to pull a goal back less than two minutes later.
The Hatters piled on the pressure as the game drew to a close, but they could not find an equaliser before Cissoko scored a third in stoppage time as manager Wayne Rooney guided the Pilgrims to back-to-back home victories for the first time this season.
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Rami Al Hajj (right) got his first goal since joining Plymouth Argyle from Danish side Odense last month
Luton came into the game after back-to-back league wins for the first time since last December, when they beat Newcastle and Sheffield United in successive Premier League games.
But it was Argyle that went ahead as Al Hajj’s wonderful, controlled strike gave the hosts an early lead after Ryan Hardie neatly laid off Michael Obafemi’s pass into the Swede’s path on the edge of the box.
The hosts should have been further ahead just three minutes later when an unmarked Obafemi flashed Morgan Whittaker’s cutback wide of the near post from 12 yards as the Pilgrims began to take control.
Rooney’s side almost got a fortuitous second midway through the opening period when Bali Mumba’s scuffed shot from a half-cleared corner fell kindly to the feet of Al Hajj, but Thomas Kaminski did well to get down and palm away his low strike.
Luton began to assert themselves as the half wore on – Tahith Chong had a close-range strike from a tough angle blocked while Adebayo headed a free kick over the bar as the Hatters got some joy from longer balls over the Plymouth defensive line.
An Argyle chance went begging five minutes before the break, when an unmarked Joe Edwards fired straight at Kaminski after good work by Mumba while Luton could have been level but for an excellent block by Lewis Gibson after a Kornel Szucs slip let Adebayo in.
Adebayo missed another glorious chance early in the second half when he headed Reece Burke’s cross over from six yards while Dan Grimshaw tipped a low near-post effort wide not long after.
PLymouth thought they had sealed victory when Cissoko blasted them ahead after great work by Darko Gyabi, but just as Argyle’s fans thought they could celebrate a two-goal cushion, Moses levelled seconds later
The former Chelsea and Liverpool man controlled Alfie Doughty’s cross from the left and blasted a low left-footed effort past Daniel Grimshaw for his first goal since joining as a free agent after leaving Spartak Moscow in the summer.
Luton continued to pressurise Argyle but balls into the box went unconnected and breaks were dealt with by the home defence.
Adam Randell crashed a thunderous effort from outside the box off the Luton bar in the 86th-minute as Argyle tried to get a third, which they did in the third minute of stoppage time as Netherlands Under-21 winger Cissoko cut in from the left, saw a blocked shot fall kindly on to his right foot and made no mistake to earn Argyle’s second league win of the season.
Plymouth Argyle head coach Wayne Rooney told BBC Sport:
"I thought it was a good performance for different reasons.
"I thought first half we were good at times, controlled the tempo of the game and Luton tried to press us, and I think when we showed composure and played through the press we caused them problems.
"Second half we were a little bit sloppy with the ball and gave it away in dangerous areas at times, but I thought defensively our back four, and in particular the two centre-backs, were excellent.
"Luton are very good at set-pieces and I thought we were brilliant defending them and showed great character and desire to go and head the ball, and then the attacking players get all the praise when they score the goals."
Luton Town manager Rob Edwards told BBC Sport:
"Credit to the opposition, at both ends of the pitch they were better - they were more ruthless at one end and defended better at the other.
"I think we got into their final third 40-odd times, twice as often as they did, but we didn't make their goalkeeper work enough.
"We weren't clinical enough at one and end then didn't defend well enough at the other -it's not a good recipe to win a football match.
"It's really frustrating to come away losing a game talking about both ends of the pitch."
