CARL FLETCHER says Plymouth Argyle can build on an encouraging clean sheet in Saturday's tough League Two trip to Accrington Stanley.

The Pilgrims finished 0-0 against Barnet at Home Park on Tuesday and did not concede in a contest of few chances for the first time in seven games and another goalless stalemate at Aldershot on New Year's Eve.

The point lifted Argyle out of the bottom two relegation places and above Dagenham and Redbridge, who lost to a 79th-minute winner, 2-1 at Oxford on Tuesday.

Dagenham only trail Argyle in the table on goals scored, highlighting the fine lines in the scrap to avoid demotion from the Football League this season.

Accrington, meanwhile, are three points off a play-off place following a costly 1-0 defeat at promotion rivals Rotherham in midweek.

"If you're going to get clean sheets, you need everyone pulling their weight," said Argyle player-boss Carl Fletcher of the result against Barnet. "I was pleased for the defenders and Jake Cole in goal to help get a clean sheet for the team. You can build on clean sheets."

Fletcher made two changes to his starting XI against Barnet, including omitting Simon Walton, from the centre of the Argyle midfield, for only the second time all season and first time in 22 games, since September 17.

"We freshened things up by bringing Conor Hourihane in for Simon," said Fletcher. "It's a long, hard season in England and, as I've said before, if we're going to get anything this season it's going to be a squad effort.

"We try to pick a team who are going to win the game."

Tuesday's deadlock ended Barnet's run of four wins on the spin in League Two, form which was only bettered by high-fliers Torquay and Swindon.

Fletcher said: "We knew it was going to be tough. Barnet had four wins in their last four games and have got some good players.

"The conditions weren't great. It was windy and cold and a bobbly pitch, so it was a real battle and I thought we applied ourselves really well and worked really hard.

"The work rate and effort was fantastic. That's only one defeat in four now and we move on to Accrington on Saturday."

On the minus side, Argyle have only won one in eight in the league – 2-1 at home over Burton Albion on January 14 – in their battle to stay up.

Fletcher added: "We did what we needed to defensively on Tuesday, but unfortunately we couldn't get a goal and go on to win three points.

"We stuck to our task in the second half, which was pleasing, when Barnet had three or four set pieces in a row.

"You need to do those things to get results in football, but again unfortunately it didn't fall for us at the other end."

Argyle might have broken the deadlock twice in Tuesday's second half.

First, striker Alex MacDonald and then left-winger Ashley Hemmings were virtually clean through on goal, but referee Brendan Malone, who arguably should have given Argyle the advantage, pulled play back for free-kicks against Barnet.

"The referee should've played the advantage twice when we were through, so that's disappointing from our point of view," said Fletcher. "But you can sit and talk about referees until you're blue in the face. That's the way it is.

"We've scored lots of late goals this season, so fitness-wise we know we're there.

"We put a lot of balls into the box and had a fair amount of pressure in the conditions. On another day we could've nicked it 1-0, but it wasn't to be."