Bury 0 Plymouth Argyle 3 by Steve Bott

DIFFERENT class. Apart from the annual first round exit and the disastrous lost chance of much-needed revenue from a run, however short, in the FA Cup, there were some harsh lessons to be learnt for the Shakers from this encounter.

Plymouth won the Third Division championship after accumulating a record points haul of 102 last season. They were far too strong and direct for a Bury side still bemoaning the loss of loan stars Terry Dunfield and Pawel Abbott.

Yet Argyle manager Paul Sturrock reckons there is a big difference in quality between sides in the Third and Second Division and Argyle will have to stop conceding so many goals if they are to start climbing the table in the higher division.

So were does that leave Bury. Basically with a lot to do.

It could all have been so different though if Argyle's impressive French goalkeeper, Romain Larrieu, had notstretched out a leg and deflected Jon Newby's seventh minute shot past his right-hand post.

After that it was pretty much all Plymouth. Lee Hodges whipped in a great cross from the left in the 18th minute, Bury's defenders were caught dozing and Mickey Evans burst through their ranks to get on the end of the cross and shoot past a startled Glyn Garner.

Plymouth's second goal in the 31st minute left Bury's defence, and one man in particular, feeling sick once again as Graham Coughlan's ball into the penalty box took a deflection off the unfortunate Jamie Stuart before nestling in the back of Garner's goal.

The near 3,000 crowd could have been forgiven for thinking that was game over. Bury did manage to prevent Plymouth adding to their goal tally until four minutes from the end when skipper Paul Wotton smashed in an incredible 30-yard free-kick, but Bury produced precious little in terms of goal threats themselves, a tame 61st minute shot from Newby that Larrieu, who is said to be interesting Arsenal, dealt with comfortably was their only effort to write home about.

In contrast, while the Bury defence seemed to cope better for much of the second half, it only took the flick of a switch for Argyle, and the lively Marino Keith in particular, to display their goal potential.

"For the first 15 minutes we did everything right, after that we did everything wrong," said Bury player-manager Andy Preece.

"It was just an all-round disappointing performance, especially after the way we started the game," added Preece.

BURY: Garner 5, Barrass 6, Stuart 5, Nelson 5, Swailes 5, Unsworth 6, Billy 5, Lawson 5, O'Shaugnessy 6, Woodthorpe 5, Newby 5. Substitutes: Preece (for Barrass, 53 mins) 5, Nugent (for Lawson, 59 mins) 5. Not used: George, Forrest, Redmond.

Referee: Mr Howard Webb (Rotherham).