Ease of Exeter City win compounds the pain for Plymouth Argyle

No Exeter City fan will care one jot but arguably the main outcome from their comfortable Devon derby victory on Thursday night was the lack of intensity from visitors Plymouth Argyle on such a big occasion.

Add into that mix the position in the League One table, Argyle remain in the relegation zone with just one win in their past five games, and Pilgrim boss Tom Cleverley faces a crisis early in his tenure at Home Park.

For the Grecians, it was a perfect night at a drizzly St James Park, controlling the game from start to finish for a first Devon derby triumph in six years, a success greeted with huge noise and enthusiasm from the home crowd.

Danny Andrew fired the first warning shot inside the opening minutes, fizzing a drive narrowly over the bar, but Argyle’s night could have followed a different path if Brendan Wiredu’s goal had not been controversially ruled out by an offside flag.

The Grecians swiftly reasserted their superiority, Jayden Wareham going close before Reece Cole was denied by a top save from Conor Hazard.

Sadly for Argyle’s Northern Ireland international goalkeeper, his next involvement led to the opening goal. Hazard made the decision to race off his line to deal with a routine ball over the top but got the clearance all wrong, presenting Cole with an open goal to break the deadlock.

The dangerous Lorent Tolaj did force a decent save from Joe Whitworth but it was a rare moment of hope for the Pilgrims, who were a beaten side when Akeel Higgins calmly slotted Exeter’s decisive second just before the hour.

While the Greens still had more than 30 minutes to salvage something from the game, it never looked likely and City cruised to all three points.

City boss Gary Caldwell told BBC Sport: "It was big that we turned up tonight and really stood up and played with a real mentality, a winning mentality.

"I thought from the first minute we set the tone in the game, I thought we had real clarity in how we were going to win the game.”

Cleverley, meanwhile, said: "It was nowhere near it, to be honest. We weren't dominant in any phase of the game - so that's defensively, from an attacking perspective, [or] from a competing perspective. If that's the case, then you struggle to take anything from the game.”