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Union aim to continue dominance over Revolution

Mar 15, 2013 - 6:24 PM Chester, PA (Sports Network) - The Philadelphia Union will shoot for their second consecutive victory -- and first on home turf -- when they host the New England Revolution on Saturday at PPL Park.

The Union were forced to stay on the road an extra day last week as their match with the Colorado Rapids was postponed by a blizzard in the area, but they were able to steal three crucial points courtesy of a 79th-minute winner from Jack McInerney.

Union manager John Hackworth praised his young forward's effort after the game:

"He was huge for us today. He was really good in the preseason and came on and played well last week. He certainly deserved the start. When we were really struggling at the end there with a couple injuries, and we were out of substitutions, he was doing everything. Massive effort on his part."

In seven all-time meetings against New England, Philadelphia is unbeaten against their rivals to the north, holding a 4-0-3 record.

The Union went 2-0-1 in three matches with the Revs last season, but the most memorable of the seven clashes came back on September 7, 2011.

In a match which was rescheduled due to Hurricane Irene, New England got off to a flying start, scoring three times in the first 30 minutes and taking a seemingly insurmountable 4-1 lead into the break.

But Philadelphia battled back as Sebastien Le Toux scored twice in the final 10 minutes to help his club salvage an incredible 4-4 draw at PPL Park.

New England officially put a poor 2012 behind them with an impressive 1-0 season-opening win over the Chicago Fire last week at Toyota Park.

2013 No. 1 overall draft selection Andrew Farrell was in the starting 11 at right back and looked cool and collected all game long, while Honduras international Jerry Bengtson scored the lone goal for New England.

"It was a hard fought battle," Revs head coach Jay Heaps said. "I thought we did a lot of good things, with a couple of mistakes here and there that led to a lot of their chances. Overall it was pretty solid. We were sharp defensively and thought we had a couple more chances, maybe after we scored the first one, I thought we could have had another one. I liked the way we finished the game. The guys were fighting for every inch."

Second-year midfielder Kelyn Rowe shook off a spell of knee tendenitis and played a big role for his club when he entered the game as a substitute, setting up Bengtson's winning tally in the 62nd minute.

"Kelyn came in and changed the game," said Heaps. "He came in and showed a little bit of class in terms of receiving the ball, finding the gaps and of course setting up the goal. "He can see the field, he knows where he is and we preach 'get the ball in the box', because we know that Jerry likes to score goals like that."

Rowe could get the call to the starting 11 on Saturday as the Revs look for their first win over Philadelphia.