The young Hatters lost out in a crazy second half that saw them concede two penalties before both sides had a man sent off in their first Puma Youth Cup game of the season.

In a five-goal first half, Luton took the lead with a Ryan Charles header, went 2-1 down and then levelled with an individual goal from Jake Howells, but fell 3-2 behind right on half time.

But those two second-half penalties ended Luton's hopes of a comeback and handed Argyle a comfortable win.

Youth boss Chris Cummins was far from happy. "In a game where we hadn't played badly, five individual mistakes cost us the game."

The match started well for Luton as they went ahead inside three minutes.

Elliott Osborne-Ricketts found Jamie McGuinness with a neat through
ball and his cross was met at the far post by Ryan Charles who headed home to make it 1-0. Plymouth equalised from a free-kick just outside the box after a foul by Dean Hamilton.

Argyle then took the lead for the first time from a tap-in after some poor Luton defending, but the young Hatters responded well and on 35 minutes, Jake Howells beat two players before slotting in at the far post to make it 2-2.

A mis-timed defensive header allowed Plymouth to take a 3-2 lead at the break. Then came that disastrous second half. First Luton lost influential midfielder Osborne-Ricketts with a groin strain after 10 minutes and almost immediately conceded a penalty after a reckless challenge in the box.

Twenty minutes from the end, a second penalty ended any thoughts of a Luton recovery.

Then near the end the referee showed a red card to each side after Matthew Maitland and a Plymouth player were involved in a minor scuffle.

It was a bad end to a bad afternoon, and Cummins was far from pleased with his side's performance.

"I'm obviously very disappointed," he said. "It's not often I can't wait for the game to end but I was embarrassed by the lack of effort and the lack of quality that we showed because we are a lot better than we are showing, we're a lot fitter than we're showing and we've got a lot more aggression and quality than we're showing.

"The lads have got to learn from their mistakes and the hardest thing at the moment is they're not learning from those mistakes. I've got no problems with lads making errors but I don't think individuals are learning because it's the same thing week in week out.

"At half time I wasn't too disappointed because we had played well, kept possession and generally I thought we did OK first half.

"We lost Elliott ten minutes into the second half and he was probably the best player on the pitch.

"That was a massive loss and we conceded a penalty just after he came off with the full-back diving in the box which is a blatant penalty and put us4-2 down.

"I'm going to use the Puma Youth Cup to bring a few of the young ones in, give some of the Under-16s the opportunity to play. I gave a few of the lads the chance to play against Plymouth and I'll be looking to bring in some Under-16s as we go."