FROM cheers to jeers in the space of the week, the reaction at the end of this, the most frustrating of matches, told you all you needed to know.

Eight days earlier Rovers had left the field to a standing ovation after sweeping aside Premier League opposition in swashbuckling style.

But they trudged down the tunnel on Saturday with boos ringing in their ears after producing a home performance that was glaring in its disparity to the one that came before it.

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And who could blame the supporters?

The hunger, dynamism and drive that characterised their side’s stunning FA Cup success over Stoke City were sadly lacking.

But even then Rovers should have had more than enough to see off an inexperienced and injury-hit Blackpool team who have not won away from home since April.

That they failed to do so owed everything to failures at both ends of the pitch.

Rovers did not show the urgency required until late on in a tame Lancashire derby that was less hotpot and more dog’s dinner.

But they still carved out ample chances to make it five straight victories at Ewood Park for the first time since November 2009.

More damningly, though, was the goal the rock-bottom Seasiders scored to secure only their sixth point on their travels all season.

When Grant Hall stole in to cancel out Jordan Rhodes’ 14th-minute opener it was the seventh time in 11 games since the start of the year that Rovers had conceded from a set-piece.

Their Achilles heel cost then two points at Wigan, one at Derby, at least one at Watford, and another two here.

No side has kept fewer clean sheets in the Championship than Rovers – five – yet it is not as if they are defending badly in general play.

You can count on one hand the number of serious saves their goalkeepers have had to make since their last shut out 12 matches ago.

But that means absolutely nothing as long as the players in front of Jason Steele and Simon Eastwood continue to be so soft at dead-ball situations.

Deal with the first header, let alone the second, from the free kick that brought about Blackpool’s equaliser, and you are talking about a scrappy win and those boos are replaced by applause.

Instead we are talking about a dispiriting draw that has left Rovers 12 points adrift of the play-offs.

It is a game of fine margins and, through no-one else’s fault but their own, Gary Bowyer’s boys are falling on the wrong side of them.

The afternoon started well enough after Rhodes notched his third goal in four matches and his 12th of the season to move within three of top-scorer Rudy Gestede.

Rhodes did not get off the bench in the midweek draw at Cardiff City or in the win over Stoke and, after tapping in a pinpoint cross from Craig Conway, his angry celebration hinted at frustration.

That said he should have taken any further frustration he felt out on the Seasiders who, for all their admirable determination, were there for the taking.

But Rhodes was not the only one to waste opportunities in a second half controlled by Rovers.

The opening period was much like that, too.

But, apart from when Matt Kilgallon volleyed over a Tom Cairney free kick, Rovers never truly looked like scoring again before the break.

And they were made to pay for their lack of intensity when they were pegged back three minutes before half-time.

Jamie O’Hara clipped in a free kick that Peter Clarke was allowed to get a free run on.

Clarke flicked the ball into the path of Hall who in turn glanced it past Steele to register the first goal of his senior career and the 1,000th of the 2014-15 Championship campaign.

And, incredibly, it could have got worse for Rovers before the half was out as Hall fired into the side-netting after O’Hara had curled another free kick against the post.

That was the last time Blackpool threatened.

But, although Gestede twice hit the bar before he was surprisingly withdrawn, it was not until the dying stages that the under-worked Joe Lewis’ goal came under siege.

Rhodes flicked a header wide and saw a snap-shot saved before substitute Chris Brown dragged an effort past the post.

There was still time for former Seasiders defender Alex Baptiste to head another cross from the tireless Conway wide of the mark.

But by then it was too little too late.