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We knew that Andrew Cole would be out of the side, that news filtered through eight days earlier in Ireland, but there was further bad news with Ade Akinbiyi also ruled out. Ade was expected to come in for Cole but he was suffering from illness and so the only change from the side that started at QPR saw Chris McCann replace Cole with Kyle Lafferty going up front in a 4-5-1 formation.
Argyle were the side in form going into the game with three successive wins behind them, but you wouldn't have thought so with the way the game started. We took the game to them from the off and it looked a continuation of the second half form at QPR. We got forward well and Robbie Blake was twice almost able to create chances and nothing had been seen of the home side.
Then came the first goal and no surprise it came from our own mistakes. Captain Steven Caldwell made a right mess of a headed clearance and it dropped for the long haired Lilian in the Plymouth midfield. To be fair his shot from outside the box was on target but it should never have troubled us. Unfortunately it did, went through Brian Jensen's legs and incredibly the home side were a goal up.
We were dumbstruck in the away end. We'd been the better side in that first quarter of an hour and here we were behind to a real soft goal. Still, we know how to come from behind away from home and we didn't have too long to wait.
It came from Wade Elliott getting down the right wing. His cross was met by the unmarked Kyle Lafferty who headed it back from James O'Connor to head home in a game that in so many ways was similar to the one he netted recently at West Brom. Getting into those forward positions was a feature of Jimmy's performance again and once more he could so easily have come off with more than one goal.
Surely now were back in the game we could go on and win this against a hardly inspirational Argyle but there were more disasters just waiting to happen but before we'd the chance to perfect the defensive dropped bollocks we had to make a change with the ill Stanislav Varga being replaced by Clarke Carlisle.
Ten minutes from half time we were behind again and you had to count the number of mistakes here. We had chance, after chance, after chance to clear the ball that initially came in from the right. We sort of got it away but it came back in from the left and eventually Peter Halmosi got the good fortune when the ball came back to him off the Beast but still shouldn't have been allowed to get a shot away.
More dumbstruck away fans, some heated discussions in the penalty area just in front of us but whichever way you look at it we had gifted Argyle the lead for the second time, and just before half time it should have been three.
The two centre halves Carlisle and Caldwell made a right hash of things and but for the incompetence of Jermaine Easter and the alert keeping of Jensen we would have gone in for the half time brew 3-1 down. It was shocking how our two centre halves let Easter but Jensen did really well to keep him out but he will know a better striker than Easter wouldn't have given him a chance.
Half time, 2-1 down. Our overall play had warranted much better, but with this defending we were thankful it wasn't even worse.
If we were the better side in the first half then we just about dominated the second half. Robbie went close, McCormick saved from Lafferty, and O'Connor was so close to his second only to see a defender get in a block.
Surely it was only a matter of time and it almost came after some brilliant play involving Robbie and Wade. Robbie played a sensational ball out to the right winger who in one move brought it down and crossed, but Kyle didn't get there at the back post and the opportunity went begging.
Joey Gudjonsson was prompting everything with some delightful distribution of the ball, but time and again it just didn't quite all come off and to be fair we hardly tested goalkeeper Luke McCormick. He did well though to save from Chris McCann at the expense of a corner as he deflected the ball narrowly wide.
You just knew what might happen if they did ever get down to the other end, and it did. Plymouth, in a rare attack, won a corner after a good save by Jensen. He punched the resulting flag kick out but Plymouth regained possession and got it back in to Halmosi. His job was made simple by Jon Harley and he smashed it in at the keeper's near post.
It looked all over now and Burnley's reaction was to replace Harley with David Unsworth. We continued to get forward and Arsenal youngster Mark Randall came on with four minutes of normal time remaining. But we were beaten, there was going to be no way back although a Lafferty header went just wide to McCormick's right.
Analysing this game it is difficult to imagine that we lost it given the way the game went and just how much we dominated it. But if you don't test the keeper enough at one end and make a catalogue of basic errors at the other end then you'll end up losing it. That's what we did and there can be no real argument that we deserved to lose it.
I spoke to one Burnley fan on the way back who thought we'd played better football than we did in the 4-2 win at QPR. It is difficult to disagree with that, but it is all about getting the ball in the net. We could neither do it at one end nor prevent it at the other.
It is therefore no surprise that our better players were to be found in the midfield area. Gudjonsson, O'Connor and Elliott were all in good form for the Clarets and it is just a matter of choosing one of them as man of the match. In the end I've gone for Wade because I feel, particularly in the second half, he did enough to ensure what should have been a Burnley victory.
There are no excuses. OK we had to make a change at the back early in the game and Carlisle was coming back in after two months out with injury. OK we were without both Cole and Akinbiyi. But we need to be better than this, much better than this at either end of the box. There were far more shocking mistakes than those that cost us goals, at times it was very much a reminder of when we used to throw one in.
The teams were;
Plymouth: Luke McCormick, Paul Connolly, Kristzian Timar, Russell Anderson, Gary Sawyer, Gary Teale (Paul Wotton 75), Nadjim Abdou, Lilian Nalis, Peter Halmosi, Steven MacLean (Rory Fallon 82), Jermaine Easter (Jamie Mackie 75). Subs not used: Romain Larrieu, Marcel Seip.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Graham Alexander, Stanislav Varga (Clarke Carlisle 23), Steven Caldwell, Jon Harley (David Unsworth 81), Wade Elliott, James O'Connor, Joey Gudjonsson, Chris McCann (Mark Randall 86), Robbie Blake, Kyle Lafferty. Subs not used: Gabor Kiraly, John Spicer.
Referee: Jarnail Singh (Middlesex).
Attendance: 13,557 (including 730 Clarets).