THE last time we were here Rovers conspired to lose a match they had played very well in. This, then, on the surface, would appear to be a good point.

For large parts it was Gary Bowyer’s side’s poorest display of the season. The first 35 minutes were flat and forgettable, and while they roused themselves to equalise through Tom Lawrence, one of their few players to rise above the mediocre fare on show, they did not do enough to win it.

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There were mitigating factors. At the end of another 10 days of taxing Championship action lay a good and in-form Brentford team who came into the game on the back of four victories from their previous five outings.

While they were not put under sustained pressure, bar a spell at the end of the first half, the Bees were the best, and certainly most composed, side to visit these parts so far this season.

So, on a horrible afternoon when the heavens opened, this was not a bad result; certainly favourable to battering Burnley and coming away empty handed.

But, in a week in which it was revealed Alan Shearer is to have a major road near Ewood Park named after him, draws are not what the current Rovers crop need if they are to stop going down the same cul-de-sac.

They have now drawn eight times this season with only David Dunn’s Oldham Athletic having shared the spoils on more occasions (10) in the Football League.

And, looking at the year as a whole, Rovers have now drawn 16 of the 38 league matches they have played in 2015, winning 11 and losing 11 of the rest.

Three games unbeaten is something to build on as attested to afterwards by both Bowyer and his players, who did not deny that performances levels had dipped.

But upon returning from the international break Rovers must start turning draws into wins. Otherwise they will continue to hit a dead end in their attempts to push up the table and widen the gap to the bottom which, at four points, is far too close for comfort.

They will have a better chance of doing that by playing Ben Marshall further up the field.

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There is no question Marshall has done a sterling job since being shifted to right-back. He has defended soundly and provided the kind of attacking threat from deep that Adam Henley is still to master.

But having played himself into top form, Rovers now need one of their best and most creative players in areas in which he can cause the most damage, especially with goals hard to come by when top-scorer Jordan Rhodes is as well-shackled as he was here.

That much was clear when Marshall picked up the ball on the left-wing with three minutes of normal time remaining.

Cutting in on to his right foot, and drifting past two markers with ease, he forced David Button into the save of the game with a moment of magic that was out of keeping with what had gone before.

Marshall deserved to see the ball rocket into the top corner for another man-of-the-match home showing. Rovers, though, did not.

They are long overdue an undeserved victory and, had it not been for Button’s stunning stop, they would have got one. Had Marshall’s superb strike gone in, the tone of this report, and the grumblings that accompanied the final whistle, would have been different.

But you cannot expect to start a match as poorly as Rovers did and come out on top.

Despite Marshall’s best efforts to jolt his team-mates into life, it was not until Lawrence’s 37th-minute cross flew fortuitously into the net, to cancel out Lasse Vibe’s all-too-easy 24th-minute opener, that they woke from their slumber.

Lancashire Telegraph:

Before the half was out Lawrence saw a shot, this time intended, pushed on to the post by Button while, shortly after the restart, Shane Duffy wasted a glaring headed opportunity from a Craig Conway corner, not for the first time this season.

Duffy has been in excellent defensive form and his brilliant block prevented the lively Vibe from putting the Bees back in front.

But, along with centre-back Grant Hanley, he needs to work on his finishing from set-pieces. It is no exaggeration to state he has had the chances this season to be pushing Rhodes close for the mantle of Rovers’ leading marksman.

That said Brentford also had their openings with Jason Steele saving smartly from Alan McCormack and Konstantin Kerschbaumer as a disappointing contest ended even.