Tony Mowbray was left frustrated by Rovers being held to a draw by Oldham Athletic and that it took a second half comeback for them to achieve it.

Rovers trailed 2-0 at the break in a poor first-half showing with the Latics thoroughly deserving of their advantage handed them to them by two Duckens Nazon strikes.

Mowbray made a double switch at the break and saw Charlie Mulgrew and Adam Armstrong find the net, but 10 man Oldham held on for a point in the closing stages. 

The result leaves Rovers one point outside of the automatic promotion spots after defeats for both Wigan and Shrewsbury. 

And Mowbray said: “I think the over-riding emotion is one of frustration and disappointment.

“We had done some work on Oldham and the frustration with the first goal was that unless Mulgrew was taking them we weren’t going to swing corners in to the box for the goalkeeper to pluck and kick it 70 yards up the pitch which is exactly what happened and they scored.

“There was frustration in the dressing room I would have to say, we needed to make some changes, change the direction of the game and huge credit to the players they went out there and did it.

“To score the equaliser still with enough time to get a winner, there’s the frustration for us.

“We probably needed to be a bit more patient, keep the ball better, especially when they went down to 10 men, but that said Jack Payne had a great strike tipped over, Armstrong’s header clipped the outside of the post, so we’re frustrated.

“When you come in and see your rivals have lost games it probably compounds things a little bit but it’s a point closer, we still have a third of the season to go so we shouldn’t be too disappointed.

“There’s a long way to go and hopefully that is the start of another run we can go on.

“It was important not to lose, sometimes when you go on a long unbeaten run you can lose two, three, four on the bounce but great credit to this group they found a way not to lose the match.”

Mowbray was critical of the first-half display, but pleased with the response after the break.

When asked if there was a dressing down at half-time, he added: “You could say that.

“Bottom line is we’re all trying to achieve here.

“We’ve all got a common goal, the same aim, and we’ve given ourselves a good platform to try and get out of this division.

“This is what I do, I live away from my family for five days a week and don’t see my kids.

“They (the players) all want to play in the Premier League but on matchdays they have to turn up.

“Training, discipline around the place, enjoying the atmosphere around the club but matchdays they have to turn up.

“First half was not good enough, not enough intensity, urgency, desire, second half that turned.

“The frustration for me is that you can see such a swing, why should that happen? It has to be there from the first whistle every game because matchday only comes around once or twice a week and you have to be there for it.”

Armstrong grabbed the equaliser off the bench for his first in Rovers colours, and Mowbray added: “It was a fantastic birthday for him.

“He’d have been disappointed not to be in the starting line-up, I just felt the balance of the team against what I knew was some good footballers, they have got good footballers over the pitch and I think you have to get the balance of not being too gung-ho in the attacking set-up of our team today.

“As they showed they have some good footballers.

“We managed to push them back in the end, didn’t quite get the winner but from 2-0 down we will take the point with the other teams around us losing, put it in the bag and move on to Tuesday.

“We defended too deep, our defenders let our strikers pin them and do what they wanted.

“They have some good players in midfield, they overloaded the midfield and with two lads up front who they could play off we didn’t condense the space well enough and they were allowed to play.

“They’re a good team with some good players, it’s a bit of a mystery why they are where they are, but maybe the evidence of the last 45 minutes suggests that they can’t keep it going for the full duration of the game. Our quality ended up pushing them back.”