Blackwell salutes battling Blades

06 December 2009 11:10
A week after winning at Bristol City, Blackwell's team were without their injured Ashton Gate hat-trick hero Darius Henderson but still claimed their third successive victory.[LNB]Midfielder James Harper scored the 88th-minute winner from 25 yards as Argyle scrambled away Jamie Ward's corner from the left.[LNB]Harper had forced the corner with a stinging strike that home goalkeeper Romain Larrieu was forced to acrobatically push around the post.[LNB]Delighted United boss Blackwell said after the 1-0 win: "We knew it was going to be a tough game. We had to be resilient, strong and focused and I am delighted that we showed those qualities really.[LNB]"The defence was superb. The conditions out there were not conducive to good football, it was raining and the wind was howling all over the place.[LNB]"It makes it difficult. That's why teams don't like coming down here because you have to keep going and stay focused. It's important.[LNB]"We were putting them under good pressure towards the end and in the end we deserved to nick it but I would not have been unhappy with the draw. It was a great strike by James."[LNB]Plymouth manager Paul Sturrock was left to rue what might have been for his team.[LNB]Just four minutes before Harper had his decisive say, home captain Carl Fletcher had powered a similar effort to the eventual winner from the edge of the Sheffield United penalty area but the ball struck the post.[LNB]Sturrock said: "Football can be cruel sometimes. We lost to a stoppage-time goal at Leicester and we lost to a goal near the end again today.[LNB]"Carl has hit the post with a shot and then they go up the other end and score the winner. That's football, especially when you are down in the table where we are at the moment.[LNB]"What did please me though was that I was able to field the back four that had been miserly before and I did think there would only be a goal in the game today.[LNB]"If we had got that goal I think we would have gone on to win the game but we didn't and they did."[LNB]The best chances in a dour, weather-spoiled encounter came in the second half.[LNB]Argyle's on-loan Aston Villa central defender Shane Lowry headed just over from Alan Judge's right-wing corner after 47 minutes.[LNB]United countered with midfielder Nick Montgomery sending a thumping shot off the foot of the post from 25 yards 10 minutes later.[LNB]Plymouth playmaker Judge then bounced a chip off the top of Carl Ikeme's net, resulting in the goalkeeper suffering a hamstring injury as he stretched for the shot.[LNB][LNB][LNB]

Source: Team_Talk