Rob Edwards wants his Luton side to use Cauley Woodrow’s dramatic late leveller as a “springboard” after the substitute scored in the final minute of stoppage time to rescue a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace.

The relegation-threatened Hatters were seconds away from a fifth-straight Premier League defeat when Woodrow nodded ex-Eagle Andros Townsend’s delivery past Sam Johnstone’s left post to draw Luton within three points of 17th-placed Nottingham Forest.

It seemed an unlikely result on an afternoon at Selhurst Park in which the hosts managed 21 shots to the visitors’ eight, but instead conceded in the final 15 minutes for a Premier-League leading  21st time.

Edwards said: “I wouldn’t say (that goal) was a turning point, that wouldn’t be the word I’d use.

“We’ve been performing well, obviously results have been against us lately, but that can happen against Manchester United, Liverpool, Villa.

“We played well in those games in big spells, but I wouldn’t say turning point, but hopefully springboard. I’d use that.

“Hopefully it garners a lot of belief. We’re up against it at the moment.

“I know there’s a lot of clubs suffering with injuries, but it’s hard for us with so many players missing, and then to lose two centre-backs during the game as well.

“We’ve got a lot of square pegs in round holes out there towards the end, and to find a way when we’re not our best away from home, to drag a result out, is huge.”

Woodrow had been an 81st-minute replacement for Gabriel Osho, who Edwards revealed had taken a knock to his knee, while Teden Mengi was replaced by Daiki Hashioka.

Luton remain in the relegation zone with 21 points, three fewer than 17th-placed Forest, who play Brighton on Sunday.

Palace were eight points clear of Saturday’s opponents ahead of Oliver Glasner’s third game in charge, and had plenty of chances to extend the distance between them and other relegation-threatened sides – including a late Odsonne Edouard chance that clipped the crossbar.

Austrian Glasner encouragingly found plenty of his own fingerprints across Palace’s performance until the final 30 seconds of the contest.

He said: “In this one situation we didn’t do it. We have to accept the result.

“It hurts. It really hurts today but sometimes you have to feel this hurt then you develop and learn from it, and we will learn from it to be active and keep the opposite team out of our box until the referee ends the game.”

Glasner will not be paying too much attention to Palace’s record of conceding late when the team travel to Spain for a warm-weather camp in the international break, believing dwelling on it to be detrimental to improvement.

He added: “We won’t talk too much about it.

“Sometimes it’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“If you always drive a car, you’re afraid of having an accident. If you go down the stairs and you are always afraid to fall down, it will happen.”

Charlton manager Nathan Jones said he was pleased to have League One top scorer Alfie May spearheading his attack as the striker’s 19th and 20th league goals of the season earned a 3-2 win over Carlisle.

Charlton did not have it all their own way, going behind to a 20th-minute volley from Luke Armstrong, but goals either side of half-time from May and Daniel Kanu helped to resume normal service.

Taylor Charters equalised with a 63rd-minute penalty after Armstrong was fouled by Macaulay Gillesphey but 15 minutes from time May pounced on a Sam Lavelle back-pass to claim the points.

“He’s a wonderful player,” Jones said of his striker, who arrived for his own media duties with a bottle of champagne.

“He’s a clever player, he’s a great lad and he’s brilliant around the place. He thinks about his game, he thinks about his movement and he doesn’t just go and play off the cuff.

“He’s scored goals wherever he’s been, he’s come here and he’s been scoring goals. His dip coincided with a dip in the team’s form, which can happen, but all you have to do is keep giving these players confidence and keep talking to them and Alfie’s responded fantastically well.”

The result moves Charlton 10 points clear of relegation but Jones insisted he remains focused on his team playing well.

“It wasn’t [about] survival, it was about getting performances,” he said. “Yes, we want to make sure that we don’t get sucked into any kind of relegation thing but we want to finish as high as we possibly can because we want to build.

“We’re not just planning for now, we want to build for the future as well.”

Carlisle boss Paul Simpson felt his team merited a much-needed point.

“The players have worked extremely hard today and probably deserved something out of it but unfortunately we go away with nothing again, which is the story of our season,” he said.

“For long periods I thought we looked decent. I thought our shape was good. I thought the plan that we had was good.”

“I’m pleased with some individual performances. Harry [Lewis]. Dylan McGeouch got on the ball and passed the ball well for us. Harrison [Neal] had another good game. Good for Luke to get a goal.”

Unfortunately for Simpson, individual errors cost the Cumbrians. “We’ve just given really poor goals away today,” he said.

“We just haven’t reacted well enough for the second goal. It’s a throw-in and we’ve not squeezed high enough up the pitch to make us nice and compact.”

“The third goal is a mistake and it’s just one of those things. We’ve got to clear our lines in that position.”

Reading manager Ruben Selles called on his side to rediscover that “extra percentage” after they failed to capitalise on their second-half dominance in the 2-1 defeat at home to Wycombe.

Wanderers went ahead early on through a superb overhead kick from on-loan defender Nigel Lonwijk but Reading equalised with 16 minutes left thanks to Sam Smith’s 10th goal of the season.

However, the visitors then clinched a dramatic 88th-minute victory when Beryly Lubala netted a penalty after Clinton Mola had clumsily fouled Chem Campbell in the home area.

“We are creating and putting ourselves in situations to score,” Selles said. “But we need to find that extra percentage at the end to make the chances count, to make the goals.

“We were not near to being ourselves in the first half. We suffered in certain situations that we should not have suffered.

“We were disconnected in some of those moments, but in the second half we were the team who wanted to do things. We were the best team on the pitch.

“Sometimes that happens in football, when you don’t play well for all of the 90 or 100 minutes, but we were able to come back, to get it to 1-1. And then from one of Wycombe’s few attacks in the second half, it came down to that penalty that we could have easily avoided.

”The atmosphere was fantastic, the crowd was with us even though we were not at our best in the first half.

“In the second half, you could feel it every time we were approaching the goal and when we scored. The environment was really good.”

Wycombe picked up their second win in six league matches, much to the delight of manager Matt Bloomfield.

“I thought that we were absolutely excellent in the first half. Maybe as good as we have been in my tenure here for 45 minutes. We were very good,” he said.

“We could have been further ahead and I was slightly disappointed at half-time that we weren’t.

“It was never going to be the same in the second half and Reading used their athleticism a lot once the game had spaced out.

“They used that incredibly well, we knew that they are a good team.

“We had to dig in at times but we then managed to find a special moment at the end [Lubala’s penalty]. That was incredibly pleasing.

“It was disappointing to give their goal away from a set-piece situation and we knew then that we had to transition into more of a low block.

“It was a case of protecting the space behind us. The athleticism that Reading have was causing us issues.

“As well as a growing team, I want us to be a winning team.”

Gary O’Neil rated Wolves’ 2-1 victory over Fulham as his favourite of the season given the adversity his side overcame.

With several key players already out, Wolves were forced into two first-half changes because of injuries to Jean-Ricner Bellegarde and key man Pedro Neto.

But second-half goals from full-backs Rayan Ait-Nouri and Nelson Semedo put Wolves in control before Alex Iwobi pulled one back with virtually the last kick of the game.

“Unbelievable win,” said a delighted O’Neil, whose side are up to eighth in the Premier League table.

“My favourite I think in terms of what we’ve had to deal with, the position we were in before the game, the position we found ourselves in 20-odd minutes into the game.

“To find a way to beat a Fulham team that are in a really good moment – when I got their team-sheet I realised how strong they are depth wise, unbelievable bench they had available to them.

“Obviously we’re in a different moment. We can be as strong as that but at this moment we’re not. Then mentally for the players to lose the only attacking players we have left and still be able to find a way to respond I thought was an unbelievable win.

“I’m sure they are, but the supporters should be unbelievably proud of the team that they just saw. If I’d have grown up being a Wolves fan and you asked me what I wanted my team to look like, it would have been that.”

The considerable negative was the two injuries, with Bellegarde sustaining a left knee problem in the opening minutes of the game and Neto then pulling up just before half-time holding his left hamstring.

The Portuguese winger, who missed two months of the season with a right hamstring injury, went off at half-time against Newcastle last week because of tightness in his hamstring, leaving O’Neil to rue his team selection.

“He had a really good week,” said the Wolves boss. “He had a scan that was completely clear, no muscle damage at all, he felt really good yesterday in training, felt good again today.

“That lands on me whether the decision to play him today was right. I’m just devastated for Pedro and how hard he’s worked to get back. We’re hopeful, medical don’t think it’s anything like his first one, but it’ll be a scan and we’ll go from there.

“If I had the team-sheet back again now, of course I’m not putting Pedro Neto’s name on it.”

It was a frustrating afternoon for Fulham boss Marco Silva, who saw Harry Wilson miss a one-on-one and Tosin Adarabioyo hit the bar in the first half.

“We had a chance to come to half-time leading the score clearly,” said Silva. “We didn’t start really well but after the first chance we created, from that moment we built the momentum and we started to be on the front foot.

“But the reality is the game is 95 minutes and the way we started the second half, we played too slow, losing some balls in dangerous areas that we cannot lose. And from that moment we are punished.”

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho refused to be too downbeat despite his side being forced to settle for a goalless draw against 10-man Blackpool.

Pompey’s lead at the top of Sky Bet League One was cut to five points as they failed to get past the Seasiders, who were forced to dig in after Jordan Rhodes was dismissed just before half-time.

But Mousinho took plenty of encouragement from the way his side played even though they were unable to break down a resolute Blackpool side, who extend their unbeaten home league run to eight games.

“We’re disappointed with the point,” said Mousinho. “We wanted to come here and win the game regardless of whether we were playing 10 or 11 men.

“The context that we played against 10 men for the best part of 50-55 minutes and created plenty of chances as well, we’re gutted that we didn’t win it.

“There were a lot of pleasing points. We created quite a few openings. When you create as many chances as we have and their goalkeeper comes away with man of the match, I can’t complain too much.

“Blackpool have one of the best home records in the league. They beat Bolton here. They sit in and defend really well.”

Mousinho felt the red card shown to Rhodes for a raised arm on defender Joe Rafferty was harsh, but believed Blackpool still deserved to be reduced to 10.

“I thought the red card was harsh. Jordan Rhodes leads with his arm. We’d have been aggrieved if it was us,” Mousinho added.

“I thought the challenge on Callum Lang is far worse and that’s a straight red. That was the worse challenge of the two.”

That was a view echoed by opposite number Neil Critchley, who was delighted with a point given his side’s numerical disadvantage.

“I’m really pleased we’ve picked up a point,” he said. “You’d be pleased before the game with where they are in the league, but obviously we’ve gone down to 10 men quite early on.

“I think it’s a harsh sending-off. It really puts you behind the game and gives you a mountain to climb.

“I’m really pleased of the way the boys have dug deep to get something out of the game. We showed great character, especially after having a man sent off.

“We had some chances and, on another day, could have nicked it, but we take the point. They had their chances, of course they did. We had to defend well. They are one of the best teams in the league for a reason.

“The crowd were fantastic and really got behind us when we needed them. You fill the crowd with passion and it really helps. When everyone’s together it’s brilliant.”

Boss Shaun Maloney admitted Jason Kerr’s late header against 10-man Leyton Orient secured a ‘really important win’ for Wigan.

The Scottish centre-back had only been on the pitch for a matter of seconds when he headed home a cross from Jonny Smith – who had also come on in the same substitution – to break the deadlock at the DW Stadium.

The O’s had played the majority of the game with 10 men after Ethan Galbraith was shown a second yellow card on 42 minutes after two fouls in the space of 13 minutes on his Northern Ireland international colleague Jordan Jones.

After that it was pretty much attack against defence, with Kerr giving Wigan a victory they undoubtedly deserved.

“It was a really important win,” acknowledged Maloney. “The game obviously completely changed on the red card.

“Leyton Orient were good at times in the first half, we were okay. At times we were really creative, at other times we weren’t at our fluent best.

“The only positive from that was when Leyton Orient had possession I never felt like they were creating big opportunities to score.

“The second half was all about trying to stay patient, understand how we were going to break them down.

“They went straight to a five and a four and it isn’t easy trying to break down 10 men.

“It was hard for the players and every substitution we made was to become even more attacking.

“But I thought the players were really good because it certainly wasn’t easy for them.

“As you can see the winner came from a short corner and sometimes you need set-plays like that to get over the line.”

Orient manager Richie Wellens was pleased with what he saw, having had ‘no complaints’ about the match-changing decision.

“I can’t really remember the first (yellow) but I’ve got no complaints about the second one, his foot was high and it was a fair booking,” he said.

“Until the sending off we dominated the game.

“It was too easy for us, the only threat they had was when we lost the ball in the middle of the pitch and they countered on us.

“I’m very proud of the team – to come to this stadium against a club that win the league whenever they are in League One.

“Wigan should be right at the top end of this division so to come here with really young players and play the way we did was excellent.

“It was comfortable for us at the back, I didn’t think they caused us any problems until they made a good substitution, taking (Charlie) Goode off and bringing on someone who was better on the ball at the back, which caused us problems.

“But we’ve been done by a set-play and we’ve got to be better with that.

“After that, they managed the game well, the referee allowed them to slow the game down, waste time, which you expect the opposition to do in that position.”

Max Verstappen romped to another commanding win at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, as rookie British teenager Ollie Bearman completed a dream debut by beating Lewis Hamilton to finish a brilliant seventh.

Despite threatening to quit Red Bull just 24 hours previously, following another twist in the ongoing Red Bull saga, Verstappen followed his win at the season-opening round in Bahrain last Saturday with another comfortable triumph in his all-conquering machine – remarkably his 19th in 20 appearances.

Sergio Perez completed a one-two finish for Red Bull, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc third.

But for Bearman, just three months old when Hamilton made his debut in 2007, this will be a night he will never forget.

Handed his shock debut as an 11th-hour stand-in for Carlos Sainz, the boy from Chelmsford, 18 years, 10 months and one day, drove into the record books as the youngest British driver to start a Formula One race.

Standing at 6ft 3in, the streaky teen followed in the footsteps of British greats’ Mike Hawthorn and John Surtees by racing for the scarlet team – and the first Englishman to do so since Nigel Mansell 34 years ago.

Bearman appeared at ease before the start, smiling with his engineers and grinning from ear-to-ear as he addressed the Sky cameras before taking his position between Yuki Tsunoda and Kevin Magnussen at the front of the grid for the national anthem.

With just one hour of practice under his belt, and a qualifying appearance – labelled incredible by Verstappen – Bearman, starting 11th, was just moments away from competing against the best 19 drivers in the world.

As the lights flicked from red to green, Bearman was slower away that he would have liked but made up for it by being aggressive on his brakes and hanging on to 11th place, despite a slight detour off the track.

Up front and Verstappen had no trouble in keeping Leclerc at bay. Midway through the opening lap he was already 1.3 seconds clear of the chasing pack.

On lap seven, Lance Stroll put his Aston Martin in the barrier. The Canadian broke his suspension by clipping the armco on the entry to Turn 21 before slamming into the tyre barrier on the opposing side of the track.

Out came the safety car and in came the leaders – bar Norris and Hamilton – for fresh rubber.

Bearman, forced to wait as other cars drove by him as he was stationary, dropped three places to 12th.

Norris led when the race resumed, only for Verstappen to swoop past three laps later. Rookie Bearman was also on the move.

He immediately despatched of Tsunoda for 11th and was in a point-scoring position on lap 14 after he swatted aside Zhou for 10th.

Up next was Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg – and Bearman wasn’t mincing his words.

“Mate he is so slow,” said the 18-year-old of Hulkenberg, the German double his age and in his 205th Formula One start.

And on lap 21 he eased past the Haas driver for ninth, with George Russell only 5.6 sec up the road.

Bearman’s engineer Riccardo Adami was swiftly on the radio. “You are doing a mega job out there,” he said. It was hard to disagree.

Norris and Hamilton, both out of strategy sync after electing not to pit behind the safety car, stopped for fresh tyres and Bearman was now seventh and ahead of both of his countrymen.

When Norris stopped on lap 37 of 50, Bearman was 6.1 seconds up the road. Hamilton, was seven seconds adrift.

“At this pace will Norris catch us or not?” asked the teenager on the radio.

“We might have a chance to stay ahead of both of them,” came the reply from the Ferrari pit wall.

The lap counter ticked down but Bearman showed maturity way beyond his years to hold on to seventh place. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took fifth ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Mercedes’ Russell.

Bearman took the chequered flag just 5.7 sec behind Russell and comfortably ahead of Norris and Hamilton.

Garry Monk felt Cambridge showed signs of what they can be capable of in his first match as manager.

Cambridge looked on course to mark Monk’s first match with a victory but Northampton dominated territory in the second half and ensured the points were shared courtesy of Jon Guthrie’s late goal.

The Us moved a point further away from the relegation zone with the 1-1 draw, ending a run of four straight losses and sitting five points above the drop zone with 10 games remaining.

“The positive of it is that we’ve stopped that run of results,” said Monk, whose side had led through Elias Kachunga.

“As much as the aim is the three points, every point will count. So I’m pleased on that side of it from the players.

“Quite understandably in that second half, where you haven’t won for a while and you haven’t got points, that kind of protective mentality comes in where you’ve got the points and it feels close, and then you’re maybe a bit too protective and stop doing what we were doing with the ball and being that threat.

“It allowed Northampton to come much more into the game in that second half. That’s stuff to work on, for sure. I probably expected a little bit of that, but I can’t complain. The players were great.

“I’ve always said that if you can’t win a game then make sure you don’t lose it. They did everything to make sure they didn’t lose that game. We can be better but that first half’s a really good indication of what they can be capable of.”

Jon Brady spoke highly of his Northampton side as they collected a point following a 5-1 loss to Peterborough on Tuesday.

“It has to be a good point,” he said. “It’s a bit of a milestone to get to 50.

“Our remit was to maintain our League One status, then we can breathe a sigh of relief. To do what we’ve done so far, without patting ourselves on the back yet, is a fantastic achievement.

“We’ve had nine out in the last three weeks, one’s a goalkeeper and six are defenders so we’re shuffling the pack all over the place with no consistency.

“There’s some constraints to us and we’re still putting in that performance. I’m really proud of the character of the team.”

Speaking of his message at half-time, Brady spoke of the need for “a lot more purpose, move the ball quicker, a few tactical elements to get round the sides a bit quicker”.

He added: “I thought we did, and we dominated possession and they were hardly in our half.

“Tuesday night was so tough to take, to bounce back like this today even after going 1-0 down shows you huge character.”

Lincoln head coach Michael Skubala praised his side’s intensity as they secured an emphatic 5-1 victory over promotion-chasing Barnsley at Oakwell.

Joe Taylor opened the scoring before Jack Moylan (2), Daniel Mandriou and Jovon Makama added second-half goals.

Adam Phillips pulled one back for the hosts, but they could not push for a comeback.

Skubala said: “We started the game really well; we started the game really bright. Our press was a little bit different to try and deal with Barnsley’s way of playing.

“I thought second half we were bang on.

“What pleased me today was, the whole team was connected. We were really good out of possession, we were aggressive when we needed to be aggressive, we didn’t give second balls up.

“Our energy and intensity was a little bit too much for them.”

On the performance of Mandriou, Skubala said: “Daniel Mandriou is a good player. We’ve had to play him a little bit lower, but again we trust him with what to do.

“Another player that’s been out the team for a bit, not getting the minutes he wants.

“He came on today and I thought he did a brilliant job.”

On the goals his side scored, Skubala said: “Good goals, I’m really pleased with all the goals. All the goals were good finishes.

“What’s really pleasing is we took our chances. We feel like sometimes we’re getting into the final third and we just need a bit more quality.

“But today I thought they showed the quality in the final third which is brilliant.”

Barnsley head coach Neill Collins admitted it was a poor performance from his team.

He said: “It probably doesn’t take rocket science to work out that the majority, if not all of our team, were way below the standards they’ve set.

“I should stress that the players have been fantastic this season, they’ve taken a lot of plaudits and rightfully so.

“But today there were just so many that fell below the levels and made individual, basic errors that were capitalised on by a very good side, who are in a very good moment.

“The scoreline was a combination of things and the biggest one just being that we had too many players being way below par.

“When you make mistakes and you get punished by goals then you take it out of your hands.

“We started poorly, went behind. But then from that point on we looked ourselves, looked like we were getting into great positions.

“But you just can’t legislate when you’re already 1-0 down to make the mistakes that we did for the second and third goal.

“There’s no question that we made it an awful lot easier for them and we don’t normally make it easy for teams.”

Paul Hurst voiced his relief as his Shrewsbury side propelled themselves seven points clear of the League One drop zone with a 2-1 victory at Port Vale.

Town took an early lead through Dan Udoh and doubled their tally early in the second half when Tom Bloxham struck.

Teenager Baylee Dipepa hit his first professional goal to reduce arrears, but it proved too little too late for Darren Moore’s strugglers.

“I’m relieved more than anything,” said Hurst, whose side had suffered back-to-back defeats before this confidence-boosting win.

“We were 2-0 up and gave away a poor goal. You can’t leave a player unmarked in the area. We made the end of the game a lot more nervy than it needed to be.

“We knew Port Vale would come at us. They had a response first half so we expected it.

“We got a second goal and knew they wouldn’t give up. But we certainly made the end of the game more nervy than it needed to be.

“I don’t think that we gave too many chances away from a lot of things.

“Marko (Marosi) made three really big saves from memory and he was credit as to why we went in ahead at half-time.

“He’s done very well since I’ve come to the club. An experienced keeper and seems to enjoy the big moments. He delivered some of those today.

“It was nice to go ahead early because it’s something we’ve worked on and identified.

“From where I was I thought it had gone in but there was a delayed reaction. It’s something we’ve worked on so I was delighted.”

Vale, who have not won so far in 2024, are seven points adrift of safety with time running out.

Boss Moore said: “It’s a hurdle we have to overcome. No matter how you dress it up, it’s been a mental thing with us in terms of conceding early and then taking a backwards step and giving ourselves a mountain to climb.

“As the game goes on, we grow into it. That was a disappointment because when you concede a goal very early it can shift the momentum of the game.

“We were holding on in the first half, we showed more impetus and got into the game in the second half.

“We had chances to go and win the match. It’s a small positive that we got the chances to go and win the game.

“We’re not talking about Vale not having chances to score. As long as that continues I believe the players we’ve got will score.

“On the flip side we need to show more concentration, togetherness, to make sure at all costs from set plays we get the first contacts and defend the second phases better until the ball’s out of the danger zone.”

Tottenham loanee Japhet Tanganga is turning himself into a hero under Millwall manager Neil Harris after his late header snatched a crucial victory over fellow Sky Bet Championship strugglers Birmingham.

It was a second goal in Lions colours for Tanganga, 24, who scored the first goal of his senior career in Harris’ first game back in charge at Southampton two weeks ago.

Millwall have now won three of their four games under Harris, who has quickly turned around their form to open up a five-point gap between them and the relegation zone.

Harris said: “Japh’s got great pedigree, he’s got a great CV in terms of games at the top level and playing in Europe, and things like that.

“It’s slightly different here for a centre-half and sometimes you have to be a different player here, and the reason I’m at the football club is to try and teach the players what a Millwall player looks like, whether that’s a goalkeeper or a centre-half or a centre-forward.

“All I said to Japh was – not complicated his game – just to make your decisions and I’ll support you, but you can be as aggressive as you like.

“A couple of his tackles were a little bit dubious here against Watford and away at Southampton in the first five minutes, but he shows that he’s buying into it.

“Ultimately, he’s headed the ball a lot (in both boxes) and to be a good Millwall centre-half you have to do that.”

Millwall started the better side, with Birmingham goalkeeper John Ruddy having to make good saves to deny George Honeyman and Jake Cooper in the first 20 minutes.

Jay Stansfield was then denied by Matija Sarkic just before half-time and hit a great chance wide early in the second half.

He then felt he should have been awarded a penalty after 63 minutes when Millwall’s Joe Bryan appeared to hold him back from Juninho Bacuna’s corner.

The Lions wildly celebrated when their winner came in the 90th minute as Tanganga rose to head in George Saville’s corner.

Birmingham remain only one point above the bottom three and caretaker boss Mark Venus has just one point from four games since taking the reins after manager Tony Mowbray temporarily stepped aside for medical reasons.

Venus, whose side could drop below third-from-bottom Huddersfield if they beat West Brom on Sunday, said on the Blues’ penalty shout: “I don’t want to sit here and pick holes in officials.

“They are what they are in this country and I’m sure everyone has their own opinion of them.

“Everyone has their own opinion of what happened, the incident, and they can make their own mind up.

“I think in the second half we got on top.

“I think in the first half we were too timid, we didn’t influence, we didn’t hurt their goal enough and I think in the second half we had a lot more purpose, more intensity.

“We took the game to them and we had some opportunities to hit the target, to score, to shoot, and we squandered them, really.

“I think they’ve got the stomach for the fight – they showed that in the second half.

“I think they just have to learn to do the basics a bit better and learn to make the right decisions.”

Plymouth head coach Ian Foster felt his side ‘dominated from start to finish’ in their 1-1 Sky Bet Championship draw at 10-man Blackburn.

Rovers’ Sammie Szmodics took his league goal tally to 21 with a sublime curling opener in the seventh minute but the home side were second best thereafter.

Their task was made harder when Kyle McFadzean was sent off for a professional foul early in the second half and Plymouth deservedly equalised through Morgan Whittaker’s close range 74th-minute finish, taking his own league tally to 18.

The goals and dismissal barely tell the story. Despite Arnor Sigurdsson striking the post in the first half, it was Argyle who created the best chances with Ryan Hardie and Bali Mumba both missing when one-on-one, while Mickel Miller and Hardie again both went agonisingly close.

Foster felt the point was “the very least we deserved” although it is now just one win in seven matches for the Pilgrims, who are three points clear of danger.

He said: “A lot of people will look at the game, see the result, see the sending off and think we’ve only scored because they’ve been reduced to 10 men.

“Before their goal and after their goal, we’ve dominated the game, literally from start to finish.

“The whole 95 minutes we’ve been the team on top – 20 shots away from home, our xG is through the roof and the only disappointment that we go away with is that we haven’t converted all those chances, or some of them.

“I’m really proud of the players. We picked the team today to dominate the ball. We felt that we could here and we did that – 66 per cent I think in the first half.

“I’ve never witnessed a team 1-0 up at half-time getting booed off. (It’s a) quite unique thing to see and hear but that just shows you the dominance we had in the first 45 minutes.

“No halves are ever the same but the players continued to knock on the door and we eventually got what we deserved.

“We’re all that little bit disappointed to come away with just the one point.”

Blackburn remain level on points with Plymouth and are yet to win under John Eustace, who praised his team’s character after playing more than half an hour with 10 men.

Eustace said: “I thought we started the game really well, played some really good football, scored a fantastic goal, had a great chance to go 2-0 up which we didn’t take unfortunately.

“Plymouth then had a couple of good chances themselves. We came in at half-time, adjusted a couple of things, started the second half quite well and obviously going down to 10 men, it’s a different game.

“I thought the character the group showed, the togetherness, the fight not to lose the game was very evident for everyone to see.

“I think the way the boys defended, fought, scrapped, and stuck together against a good attacking team and limited them to hardly anything really second half – they had pressure but no real clear-cut chances, maybe one. But we still had a couple of half-chances ourselves.

“The big positives to take out of the game…the way the group really stuck together and fought. You can see the fight is there that we want to stay in this league.”

Ryan Lowe hopes his Preston side will take their shock 2-1 home defeat to Championship strugglers Stoke as a wake-up call in the Lilywhites’ fight for the play-offs.

A second-half own goal from Andrew Hughes, plus Luke McNally’s late winner were scored either side of substitute forward Milutin Osmajic’s equaliser for the hosts, ending the Lancashire club’s seven-game unbeaten run and leaving them in ninth – five points from the top six.

The former Plymouth manager was particularly disappointed with the nature of the two goals conceded, with the first coming about through a vicious left-sided cross from Lynden Gooch and the second arising after a defensive mix-up which allowed McNally to tap in from point-blank range.

Lowe said: “It was tough because we were nowhere near the levels that we’ve been at.

“We knew Stoke were going to come and fight and they obviously changed shape to nullify us and stop us from playing. We were flat. We weren’t on the level we’ve been at during the last few weeks.

“Maybe that will give us a kick up the backside. You can’t give teams like Stoke, who are fighting for their lives, opportunities to score goals.

“I just don’t want the season to fizzle out. I want us to keep pushing.

“There are some good teams in around us. I know how tough the Championship is, but I want to give the lads a chance to stay in and around the top spots.

“The points that we’ve got are excellent and hopefully this can give us a bit of a kick up the backside, so we don’t get too carried away.

“We need to get a result against Plymouth now before the international break.”

In the other dugout, another former Plymouth boss in Steven Schumacher was delighted with his team’s performance in blustery conditions.

The travelling Potters began the game third-bottom but came racing out of the blocks to put the hosts on the backfoot almost immediately.

Yet supporters had to wait until the second half for their strong showing to represent itself on the scoresheet, with McNally’s 87th-minute winner meaning Stoke rise to 19th in the table and three points clear of the drop zone.

Schumacher said: “It’s an important win. We’ve had a good week actually with a really good performance against Leeds on Tuesday where we could have got a point.

“To come here today and take all three points is a really good achievement because we were up against a really good team who are in excellent form, so yeah it was a battle.

“It wasn’t the prettiest of games, but with that pitch and the style of game it was going to be, it doesn’t matter.

“Getting the win is all that matters. This result can give everyone a bit of confidence and belief. It’s huge to be out of the bottom three.

“Everyone understands that there are so many teams down there fighting for their lives.

“We need to back that up now in the next game against Norwich and see if we can get a result there, because every point is going to be crucial.”