Under-18s head coach Jamie Lowry was delighted with the character shown by his Plymouth Argyle side as they progressed to the last 16 of the FA Youth Cup but thought they made it more difficult than it needed to be.

The young Pilgrims let slip a 2-0 lead in their fourth round tie against Lincoln City at Home Park on Wednesday night as the game went into extra-time after it finished 2-2 over 90 minutes.

There were no further goals over a further half-an-hour of action and it went to penalties, with Argyle's Cole Fisher, Harry Shield, Seb Campbell, Jared Rendle and Tegan Finn scoring all five of theirs, while goalkeeper Dan Holman made one save from Lincoln's Carter Ford, as the home side came out on top 5-4.

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It was a second successive extra-time for Argyle in the FA Youth Cup this season after they drew 2-2 away to Carlisle United over 90 minutes in round three before eventually winning 4-2.

Lowry told Argyle TV after the shoot-out success against Lincoln: "I'm not sure how many more extra-times I can take! I'm delighted for the lads to get through and show the character they did to go all the way again.

"I'm a little bit frustrated also because I think we could have played a lot better. We didn't maybe give the best account of ourselves and made the game more difficult than it needed to be.

"We were two-nil up and still not playing as well as we can do, but credit to them (Lincoln) they came back into it, with a little bit of help from ourselves not managing moments right."

Lowry added: "The boys are so fit. They train so hard every day and it shows when we come to extra-time and they have got three or four players down with cramps and struggling to carry on, and the boys are still running their hearts out, still running past people, still competing and fighting, so massive credit to them."

Fletcher Poole opened the scoring for Argyle with a 41st minute header and when captain Joel Sullivan made it 2-0 early in the second half with a clever back-heeled finish they looked to be well on their way to the fifth round.

However, Lincoln had other ideas as first Zane Okoro replied from the penalty spot and they then capitalised on a defensive mistake when Jaxon Tomak equalised in the 69th minute. In the end, after the tension of penalties, it was Argyle who eventually prevailed.

Lowry said: "That's the aim of the cup, to go and get through to the next round, however it be. Obviously, we all want to play fantastic football and play teams off the park, and in an ideal world we do, but for whatever reason it didn't happen for us tonight.

"But, on the other side of it, the lads showed character, personality, determination, and a never give up attitude. Then Dan saved the penalty and I thought all the boys were outstanding with their penalties.

"There were five really good penalties, they were calm and focused, and knew what they were doing. We practiced them in training the other day, kind of accidentally, because the boys drew in the small-sided game.

"They wanted to play another game, and I was like 'No, we will just practice pens, make it a bit realistic'. I'm glad we did."

Argyle: Dan Holman; Joe Mwaro, Jensen Ireland, Joel Sullivan, Harry Shield; Cole Fisher, Billy Devlin, Lewis Thomas (Seb Campbell 63 mins); Tegan Finn, Kian Burch (Frankie Maund 75 mins), Fletcher Poole (Jared Rendle 84 mins). Substitutes (not used): Leo McCormick, Jack Flower, Toby Halley, Sam Hayman, Toby Maclean.

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