Carsley breaks duck

Plymouth 0-1 BLUES

Lee Carsley scores his first goal for Blues to secure all three points for McLeish's men at Home Park tonight.

Blues who were battered throughout by the home side snatched a vital win especially with teams around them pushing for promotion also winning.

The Pilgrims started the better applying early pressure to a make shift Blues backline. McLeish was forced make several changes to the side that beat Watford on Saturday.

Liam Ridgewell failed to recover from a virus and therefore Martin Taylor kept his place at the heart of the Blues defence. Seb Larsson was also ruled out after picking up a strain at the weekend. James McFadden (groin) also missed the trip to Home Park and was replaced by Quincy down the left hand side.

McLeish got his boys in 0-0 at the break but Plyouth picked up from where they left off in the early stages after the break with on loan striker Paul Gallagher and Rory Fallon causing the visitors major problems, which thankfully Maik Taylor was equal too.

Having weathered the storm Blues did begin to get a foothold in the game when Quincy broke clear inside the box only to see his effort crash against the bar and get cleared for a corner as Blues attacked the end consisting of the 791 Blues fans that made the long trip down to the south coast.

Blues broke the deadlock from the resulting corner as the ball broke loose inside the area and saw Carsley finish to score his first goal for his new club. Emotion was there for all to see as Carsley ran away to celebrate with the away fans who went wild as the ball hit the back of the net.

Blues had half an hour remaining and stood tall throughout with a battling spirit which revealed the signs of champions. Cameron Jermome came on for the last 15 minutes in replace of Marus Bent and helped by some much needed time for Blues late on with his pace causing real dangers.

Jerome could have wrapped it up with five minutes remaining when he blasted over from six yards out after Stuart Parnaby had worked the opportunity well down the right. But it wasn't meant to be as Blues were forced to hold out right to the end and when the whistle ended proceedings, their relief was shown as they celebrated a quite determined away win despite Plymouth throwing everything at Blues.

Wolves beat Derby 3-0 and Reading also won at home 1-0 against struggling Blackpool. A great win for Blues away from home considering the injuries and they now go to Preston on Saturday night for a 5.20pm kick off.