Michael Obafemi goal lost amid Wayne Rooney and Morgan Whittaker headlines

The striker scored his first goal on loan to Argyle in their highly-eventful Championship match against Blackburn Rovers at Home Park

Until the 86th minute of Plymouth Argyle's Championship clash against Blackburn Rovers at Home Park on Saturday it looked like a lot of the post-match talk would be about Michael Obafemi.

The on-loan striker from Burnley had scored the only goal of the game at that point - his first for the Pilgrims - as time ticked down to the final whistle, but then there was incredible late drama. Instead of the headlines being about him, they were all focused on Wayne Rooney and Morgan Whittaker.

First, Rooney was sent-off by referee James Linington after a controversial equaliser from Blackburn. The Argyle head coach was furious a free-kick was not awarded to his team after what appeared to be a trip on Ryan Hardie in the build-up to the goal.

Then, in the seventh and final minute of added time at the end of the second half, Whittaker headed home to clinch a 2-1 win and a third consecutive league victory for the Pilgrims at Home Park.

It was a breathless finish. Rooney was not allowed to talk to the media after his red card so it was left to assistant head coach Pete Shuttleworth to reflect on the crucial part played by Obafemi in Argyle's success.

One thing is for sure. A player contracted to Burnley scoring against their arch local rivals Blackburn will not have gone un-noticed in east Lancashire. Obafemi also did the same thing when on loan to Millwall last season and he was on target in a 1-1 away draw.

The Republic of Ireland international made his third Championship start for Argyle against Blackburn and marked it by shooting high into the net in the 16th minute after a cut-back from Ibrahim Cissoko. He went to play for just over an hour before making way for Hardie.

Shuttleworth said: "We are delighted with him. We knew when we signed Michael he has had a little bit of a lull in his career and we have got to build him up again.

"He's a really good player who has scored goals at this level before. I thought he worked really hard. Yes, he ran out of legs, we knew that would be the case, and the manager (Rooney) always talks about 'Do what you can do, and if we have to drag you off the pitch because you can't run anymore, brilliant, we have got subs who can come on'.

"I thought he was excellent for the 60 minutes. He fully deserved his goal. He had another really good chance as well. His pace and his power, and his directness at times, could be lethal for us and I think he showed bits of that.

"So we keep going with him, we keep trying to build him up into that player he has been a few years ago when he scored goals at this level and we have got another option there to give us a number nine, alongside Ryan and Andre Gray now. We have got options there who can hopefully score goals and take us where we need to be."

Gray, the 33-year-old former Luton Town, Brentford, Burnley, Watford and Queens Park Rangers striker, joined Argyle last Friday as a free agent after last paying for Al-Riyadh in the Saudi Pro League.

While his signing was completed in time for him to be available to play against Blackburn, the club did not receive his international clearance before the cut-off point. So, instead, Gray did some running on the Home Park pitch, under the supervision of Argyle's head of sports science Connor Derbidge, more than an hour before kick-off.

Gray has been signed on a short-term contract until January because of the torn hamstring suffered by Argyle's on-loan Slavia Prague striker Muhamed Tijani, who is set to be out of action until the new year.

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