YOU could tell how great a point it was at Middlesbrough on Saturday by the way the players and the supporters celebrated wildly at the end.

Boro are a good side who will be up there challenging with Blackburn come the end of the season. So to go to their place and come away with a draw was very satisfying indeed, even if you’ve got to admit we didn’t deserve it.

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Yes Rovers showed a lot of fighting spirit but they were not at their best as a team. Individually, you could not look past the goalkeeper, Simon Eastwood, as he was fantastic.

Remember he only came into the side because the on-loan Jason Steele was not allowed to play against his parent club.

You did wonder whether a change between the posts would upset the applecart and from the fans I spoke to before the game, you could tell they were nervous because it’s such a key position and because Middlesbrough are strong and have got goals in them, especially at home.

But Simon pulled off several fantastic saves and just the one fumble. He really was the difference because his saves eventually allowed Blackburn to show their never-say-spirit and throw the kitchen sink at Middlesbrough in those last five minutes of injury-time.

Should Blackburn have started the way they finished? Possibly, as I believe – and I’ve said this many times before in this column – when they attack teams in their half they can really hurt teams.

When they sit back and defend they can still hurt teams but they can get hurt themselves.

That said, when I saw that Blackburn were starting 4-4-2, and then saw how they started the game, I thought, ‘this is looking good’. But they took their hands from around Middlesbrough’s throat, let them settle and, inevitably, let them take charge.

The mentality changed and it was almost a case of, ‘let’s sit back and see if we can try and nick something’.

But Middlesbrough were very cute and didn’t allow that to happen – well, not until after the 90 minutes.

Then all of a sudden Blackburn’s team spirit came to the fore and it was almost as if they said to themselves, ‘if we’re going to go down we might as well go down 2-0 and go down fighting’.

Fortune favours the brave in those situations and the lads went in where it hurts from the corner that led to Rudy Gestede’s equaliser.

Their goalkeeper got knocked over and the ball ended up in the back of the net and all of sudden you’re celebrating getting something out of a game it looked like you would get nothing from.

It moved Blackburn closer to the top and further away from the teams on the edge of the play-offs.

That’s why it felt so sweet.