Wayne Rooney has been defended by Plymouth coach Pete Shuttleworth after his red card in the club’s dramatic 2-1 win over Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.
Plymouth went ahead in the 15th minute through Michael Obafemi, who is currently on loan from Burnley.
It looked as though Blackburn had earned a draw after Joe Rankin-Costello found the net.
Rooney was incensed by that leveller and remonstrated with the fourth official, with the ex-England and Manchester United star believing a foul had been committed in the build-up.
Wayne Rooney has been defended by Plymouth coach Pete Shuttleworth after his red card in the club’s dramatic 2-1 win over Blackburn Rovers on Saturday
PA
As his temper boiled over, the 38-year-old received his marching orders.
As a result, Rooney wasn’t in the dugout as Plymouth snatched a dramatic late leveller courtesy of a header from Morgan Whittaker.
Shuttleworth, speaking after the fixture, has now defended Rooney.
And he insists his rage was down to ‘passion’, insisting that’s a good thing for the football icon to have.
“We were disappointed with their goal, I think that was evident and we could have easily gone under at that point,” he said.
“We didn’t we went down the other end and had a couple of chances and Morgan pops up with a header in the middle of the goal which was fantastic.
“To win three on the bounce here in front of these fans is really pleasing and we leave the ground a really happy group tonight.
“Wayne’s still passionate. He has got that passion.
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“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.
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Wayne Rooney was enraged before Plymouth’s dramatic late goal against Blackburn on Saturday
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“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.”
He continued: “This block of games has been fantastic little spell for us.
“It gives us something to build on. It’s given us something to build on going forward.”
Wayne Rooney has now won three Championship matches since taking charge of Plymouth back in the summer
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Plymouth are next in action against Cardiff City on October 19.
They currently sit 14th in the Championship table, having picked up 11 points from their nine matches so far.