Manager Wayne Rooney was sent off as Plymouth secured a dramatic 2-1 win over Blackburn at Home Park.
The former England striker was incensed by Blackburn’s equaliser four minutes from time and remonstrated with the fourth official after Joe Rankin-Costello had headed home.
Rooney felt there was a foul in the build-up and was sent to the stands by referee James Linington following a heated exchange – but his mood was improved when Morgan Whittaker headed home a dramatic Argyle winner in the seventh and final minute of stoppage time.
Wayne Rooney was sent off
Plymouth had earlier swept into a 15th-minute lead against the run of play through on-loan Burnley striker Michael Obafemi.
Argyle had a first-minute let-off when defender Lewis Gibson had to clear off the goal-line as Rovers striker Makhtar Gueye beat oalkeeper Dan Grimshaw with an angled drive.
The Argyle keeper did much better dealing with Rovers’ next attack in the 13th minute when he denied Andreas Weimann with his feet.
The home side went ahead in the 15th minute and Whittaker was architect of the goal with a superb 60-yard pass that set Ibrahim Cissoko away down the wing. The Netherlands Under-21 international cut inside and teed up Obafemi to spin and score from 10 yards.
Within a minute of Argyle taking the lead Cissoko cut in from the left and let fly with a shot which looked to be sneaking under the bar until Aynsley Pears tipped the ball over at full stretch.
Obafemi came close to doubling his tally in the 34th minute when he latched on to a bouncing pass out of defence, beating defenders Danny Batth and Hayden Carter, before firing inches wide past Pears and the post.
Darko Gyabi went just as close in the 39th minute after a characteristic run from midfield. With defenders backing off, Gyabi sent a shot on the run just wide from 20 yards.
Cissoko fired high and wide when teed up with a clever back-heel pass by Rami Al Hajj in the opening minute of the second half.
Hedges produced a diving save from Grimshaw with a low 20-yard drive on the run in the 52nd minute.
Pears made a brilliant save to keep out Joe Edwards’ first-time shot in the 53rd minute, palming the ball over the bar, after a superb flowing move by Argyle down the left flank.
The Rovers keeper made a double save minutes later, stopping Adam Randell’s shot on the run and then using his feet to deny El Hajj as he followed in on the loose ball.
Pears made yet another superb stop to deny Cissoko as Argyle sought to double their lead, and then Whittaker looped a 65th-minute shot just over the bar after being set up by sub Ryan Hardie.
Hardie then teed up fellow sub Mustapha Bundu, whose shot was turned around the post by Pears after 72 minutes.
Rankin-Costello then headed home Dominic Hyam’s cross after 86 minutes, leading to Rooney being sent from the dugout.
Grimshaw made another superb stop with his feet to deny sub Yuki Ohashi as he homed in on goal in the 89th minute but just as the game looked destined for a draw, Whittaker won it for the Pilgrims.
The forward nodded home Randell’s header back into the goalmouth from Gibson’s deep cross as Argyle piled on the pressure in the seventh and final minute of stoppage time.
The managers
Plymouth assistant head coach Pete Shuttleworth:
“Wayne’s still passionate. He has got that passion. We were disappointed there wasn’t a foul given for the foul on Ryan Hardie leading up to the goal.
“To win three games against three good teams – Sunderland who were top, Luton just down from the Premier League and Blackburn who were unbeaten until this week – is great, especially going into the international break.
“I thought it was excellent from start to finish.
“To win a game like that is really exciting and the fans go home really pleased.
“I thought we were outstanding and fully deserved to win.
“The only slight disappointment is that we didn’t finish the game off earlier because we had enough chances to be comfortable going into injury time and when you don’t do that you always allow a team to stay in the game a little bit and that’s exactly what happened.
“The pleasing thing after that (Blackburn levelling) was our mentality to go and win the game.”
Blackburn’s John Eustace:
“I thought for the first hour we stayed in the game. The plan was to always open it up in the last half an hour with the positive changes. We didn’t want to concede the goal in the manner we did.
“The lads stuck to the task and when we brought the subs on, we thought there was only one team that was going to go on and win the game.
“We scored a good equaliser and had some good moments after that, so to concede in the manner we did is really disappointing and something we have to work on.
“In the first half we won the ball back in the opposition half but we weren’t good enough in the final third and our decision making wasn’t good enough. We knew we had a good bench and the game opened up when the subs came on.
“It is really disappointing, we got ourselves back into the game and it looked like we would go on and win it. It was disappointing we didn’t see the game through.
“We had a game plan, but we didn’t look after the ball well enough.”
