Plymouth Argyle moved up to seventh in the Championship after a 2-0 win at Southampton, their first win away to Saints in 34 years.

Nigel Pearson's reign as boss at St Mary's got off to a disappointing start as first-half goals from Peter Halmosi and Jim Paterson gave Argyle a convincing win.

Despite starting brightly, Saints went behind after 31 minutes when Lilian Nalis played in Halmosi, who clipped the ball past Kelvin Davis.

Things went from bad to worse two minutes later when Paterson curled home an excellent long-range effort for his first Pilgrims goal since joining the club from Motherwell last month.

Saints estimated the crowd of 17,806 was their lowest-ever for a league game at St Mary's and the disgruntled home fans voiced their concerns as Davis made a superb save to stop Easter making it 3-0 just before the break.

Southampton came flying out the traps after the restart in search of a way back into the game and Saganowski headed over from a tight angle.

Southampton continued to press late on, but they ran out of steam as the Pilgrims held on for the win that took them within two points of the play-offs.

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