photo by Derik Hamilton/USA Today Sports

By JOE TANSEY

CHESTER, Pa. — It wasn’t pretty by any stretch of the imagination, but all that mattered to the New England Revolution was the three points they took back home with them.

Powered by a Diego Fagundez second-half strike, the Revolution kept pace in the playoff race with Toronto FC by defeating the Philadelphia Union, 1-0, at PPL Park on Saturday night.

The victory allowed Jay Heaps’ side to stay level on 37 points with the Reds following their win over the Montreal Impact earlier on Saturday.

The first half was light on excitement, but there were a few chances created by both teams.

Charlie Davies set up the first solid New England attack of the night, but Fagundez wasted the forward’s play by launching a shot into the River End.

Two minutes later, Tranquillo Barnetta attempted the Union’s first shot. A ricochet off a defender allowed the Swiss international to fire a shot near goal, but it went off to the left.

Barnetta forced Bobby Shuttleworth into action in the 21st minute with a shot directed at the near post. C.J. Sapong tried to clean up the remnants of the attack, but Shuttleworth deflected his attempt out of play.

On the ensuing short corner, Cristian Maidana was set up by Raymon Gaddis, but the effort from the Argentinian banged into the side netting.

After a long lull in action in front of both goals, Barnetta picked up a turnover in the middle of the pitch and fed Sebastien Le Toux on the left side of the box. Le Toux’s shot forced Shuttleworth to make his second save of the contest, as the New England goalkeeper made himself big at the left post.

>Fagundez opened the scoring in the 51st minute with a shot from the middle of the penalty area that rolled into the bottom-left corner of the net. In the buildup to the goal, the Union defense had plenty of time to step in and take the ball off the feet of Fagundez, but allowed him to take plenty of space and paid for the mistake.

Philadelphia attempted to strike back seconds later on a corner kick, but Sapong’s header flew a few inches over an outstretched Shuttleworth and the top of the crossbar.

In the 59th minute, Maidana broke loose on the right side of the field and tried to find Sapong with a cross, but Andrew Farrell dove in and knocked the ball off the boot of Sapong with his head.

It took a while for the Revs to create another significant chance, but Lee Nguyen struck a shot from the center of the field in the 79th minute that Andre Blake saved.

Philadelphia hoped the addition of Fernando Aristeguieta, Eric Ayuk, and Andrew Wenger would help put a spark in the attack, but none of the three offensive-minded substitutions created anything of significance during their respective shifts off the bench.

The Union were handed a late blow in the form of a Maidana red card. The league leader in assists appeared to spit in the direction of Nguyen while the Revolution player was down on the field, and was sent off.

New England returns to action on Sept. 5 at home against Orlando City, while Philadelphia faces a treacherous road trip to Avaya Stadium to play the red-hot San Jose Earthquakes on the same night.