JUST IN:Ian Foster is not overly impressed by Plymouth Argyle’s victory over Cardiff City…

Ian Foster thought his revamped Plymouth Argyle team was worth it as they defeated Cardiff City 3-1 at Home Park, thanks to goals from Ryan Hardie and Morgan Whittaker. It was Foster’s first Championship victory as the Pilgrims’ manager and they moved up to 15th place in the league table.

Since Foster was appointed by the Pilgrims earlier this month, the team has won two games and collected four points. His debut Championship encounter resulted in a 1-1 draw away to Huddersfield Town  After their eighth league victory at home this year, Argyle moved up four spots to take 15th place in the standings, with nine points separating them from the relegation zone.

Foster selected four of his five new recruits in January  starting line-up against Cardiff, with Ashley Phillips, Darko Gyabi, Alfie Devine and Adam Forshaw all in the team, while the other one, Matty Sorinola, was an unused substitute.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Pilgrims got off to a poor start, falling behind to a goal from Perry Ng in the tenth minute before Hardie scored his first of two goals in the thirty-first.

Early in the second half, Hardie scored his eleventh goal of the year, and Argyle secured the victory when Morgan Whittaker, wearing the captain’s armband and with Joe Edwards and Jordan Houghton on the bench, scored for the 16th time this season in the 81st minute.

Foster said: “We expected a difficult game, they always are. The games are tight at this level and I think you have seen that with the results in the league today.

“There is never an easy game, but I’m just really pleased with the players. There is evidence, again, that they are taking on the information we are giving them. I have been in now two weeks yesterday, so we have not had that many sessions.

“There were four players very new to the football club on the pitch today. Two of them have only had very limited time with the group so there were a lot of positives from a game I thought we thoroughly deserved to win.”

“I thought our energy, our application, our desire all the non-negotiable that we speak about they did particularly well.said Foster.

“I thought we got stronger as the game went on, which is a really good sign, and there was really strong individual performances in a wonderful team performance.

“Listen, we won’t get carried away. We know it’s just three points, but it’s a big three points for us. It’s a big three points for me personally because you don’t want that monkey on your back in terms of not being able to win a game at home in the league, so we have ticked that one off.

“We will go back to work early next week and try to get our first win away from home (against Leeds United in the FA Cup fourth round next Saturday).”

Argyle moved four positions up the Championship table to 15th after getting their eighth home league win of the campaign. “We have got to make this place a fortress,” said Foster.

“I said to the players afterwards that’s probably the benchmark in terms of how I want them to play – the energy they used, their desire, their application.

There is never an easy game, but I’m just really pleased with the players. There is evidence, again, that they are taking on the information we are giving them. I have been in now two weeks yesterday, so we have not had that many sessions.

The key to our press is the nine (Hardie). So if the nine gets it right then everyone else will come behind him, and he was incredible today in terms of his endeavour. There is lots of positives today but, as always, there is lots of things we need to work on so we won’t get carried away.

“We will review the game over the weekend, and review it with the players on Monday morning before we turn our attention to Leeds.”

Hardie has had two spells out of the side over recent months due to a hamstring injury and a concussion, but when he has been out on the pitch he has been getting among the goals regularly for Argyle.

“I thought he took his second goal particularly well. It was a terrific strike, but the challenge to the players is I think we could have scored more.

“We are always looking to get better, we are always looking to improve. I think if we had been a bit more ruthless today perhaps we could have scored four or five.”

Early goal for Cardiff came when Phillips, the 18-year-old loan signing from Tottenham Hotspur,cleared a corner but failed to do so leaving the ball in Ng possession to score from close range.

Foster said: “I felt for them (the Argyle players) in the first half because I didn’t think on the balance of play they should have been one goal down. That’s our fault, we have got to defend better at set plays.

We have got to win first contact, but on the balance of play there was nothing in the game. I actually thought we were the better team.

“I just felt we had to step it up in terms of our energy and being more on the front foot out of possession, and it was second half. The players took it on board and applied themselves really well, and showed the quality when they needed to.”