ANGRY Blackburn Rovers boss Gary Bowyer said there were ‘no excuses’ for his side’s 4-0 derby drubbing at Bolton on Saturday.

Rovers were without captain Grant Hanley and star midfielder Tom Cairney and wasted opportunities to score before Medo set Bolton on the way to their biggest victory over their neighbours for 86 years.

Bowyer also lost his only fit and available centre-back, Matt Kilgallon, to injury.

But he refused to look for any mitigating circumstances for a defeat which, a week after they had won at Reading, left Rovers six points off the play-offs in 10th.

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Bowyer said: “There are no excuses. We can’t perform like we did against Reading and then a week later come here for a local derby and perform like that.

“We demanded passion but I don’t think we got enough from the players on that.

“Obviously the centre-half position didn’t help but no excuses. When you pull on the jersey for Rovers we expect more than what we got.”

But Bowyer did admit the outcome may have been different had stand-in skipper Jordan Rhodes opened the scoring.

He said: “I think the first goal was crucial. Their keeper has made two outstanding saves and then we’ve conceded four poor goals from the standards we’ve set ourselves.”

When asked for a message for the 2,743 travelling supporters, Bowyer said: “I was hugely disappointed for them because they turned out in their thousands and they were very vocal.

“They continued to back us in the second half and I thank them for that and they can rest assured we are as angry as them if not more so.”