Plymouth boss Tony Pulis made his first return to The Britannia Stadium since his three-year Stoke tenure ended last June - and witnessed his new side have the better of a drab affair.

French midfielder Lilian Nalis came closest to breaking the deadlock in a lifeless first half, but Stoke goalkeeper Steve Simonsen was equal to his fizzing strike after 32 minutes.

And Argyle's David Norris missed the best chance of the match just 49 seconds into the second half, screwing his shot wide from just six yards.

Stoke, one place behind the visitors in 16th place, started brightly and Peter Kopteff drilled in a left-footed drive which was well blocked by Paul Connolly, before Johan Boskamp's plans were dealt an early blow.

Mali striker Mamady Sidibe was replaced by Hannes Sigurdsson after just 14 minutes after the forward was injured in a clash with Mathias Doumbe.

The injury knocked Stoke out of their early rhythm, and it was the visitors who began to press.

Plymouth's goal hopes lay chiefly with on-loan Vincent Pericard, who made his full debut, but Norris shot over when well placed before Nalis was the first to test Steve Simonsen with his 20-yard strike.

With neither side having obvious promotion or relegation concerns the game was slow to get into gear, and a flurry of late first-half Plymouth corners failed to produce a meaningful shot on target.

Stoke's Guinea international Sambegou Bangoura made his first start after going AWOL from African Nations Cup duty, but was anonymous in the first 45 minutes.

Plymouth started the second half brightly in pursuit of a fourth away win of the season and should have gone ahead when Norris missed his sitter.

The midfielder then went close with a speculative long range strike before Bangoura finally came to life to fashion Stoke's best opportunity.

Bangoura, the subject of a failed £2.5million bid from an unnamed Russian club in the transfer window, showed his class on the hour mark.

Picking the ball up deep in his own half, Bangoura played a fine one-two with Dave Brammer and met his left-wing cross with a bullet header that was superbly clawed away by Plymouth keeper Romain Larrieu.

That was the end of the goalmouth action on a disappointing night which extended Stoke's poor run of home form to six games without a win.

Teams:

Stoke Simonsen, Hoefkens, Duberry, Hill, Broomes, Chadwick,Brammer, Skoko, Kopteff (Sweeney 67), Sidibe (Sigurdsson 18),Bangoura.

Subs Not Used: Junior, de Goey, Dickinson.

Booked: Chadwick.

Plymouth Larrieu, Connolly, Doumbe, Ward, Barness, Norris,Nalis, Wotton, Capaldi, Pericard, Chadwick (Evans 60).

Subs Not Used: McCormick, Buzsaky, Aljofree, Hodges.

Booked: Doumbe, Barness.

Att: 10,242

Ref: M Riley (W Yorkshire).