AHEAD of this, his 100th match in the Ewood Park hotseat, there was much discussion about the progress Rovers have made since Gary Bowyer first stepped into the manager’s shoes.

Back then the club was a shambles, beset by infighting, and still very much being ripped apart from within.

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Barely a day went by when it did not find itself at the front section of this newspaper as well as the back.

It is to Bowyer’s eternal credit, then, that, almost 26 months to the day since he was parachuted into the job, he has made it about the football again.

So much so that, like any other club across the country, when Rovers do go on a bad run of form, like they have done since December, the focus shines brightly on what is happening on the pitch.

That is not to say the club does not face bigger challenges off it. Far from it.

But there is no question it is in a better place, on the field at least, than it was that afternoon at Oakwell deep into a bleak 2012.

However, there is also no question that Rovers have not made the progress that was expected of them this season, a disappointment and frustration most keenly felt by the supporters but shared by Bowyer.

One of the major reasons for that has been his side’s inability to keep clean sheets.

Before this game Rovers had registered only five, a meagre tally that was the lowest in the Championship.

The shutout here, then, was cause for encouragement.

Bar Watford, no team has scored more goals than title-challenging Bournemouth and this was the first time they have failed to find the net at the Goldsands Stadium since March, a run stretching back 24 matches.

Rovers have been defending better than their lack of clean sheets suggests yet too often they have wrecked their chances of keeping one with slack play from a set-piece or an individual mistake.

But neither were in evidence here as they produced as good a defensive display as any in Bowyer’s previous 99 games at the helm.

Critics of captain Grant Hanley will say it is no coincidence that it came without him in the side.

Hanley, along with Bowyer, has copped the most flak for Rovers’ slide from the play-off places to mid-table.

But he is not the only player to have under-performed at times this season and it would be wrong to pin all the blame on his young shoulders.

Hanley, though, should be hard pushed to regain his place if stand-in skipper Matt Kilgallon and Alex Baptiste can replicate the performance they produced as a partnership here.

They were excellent, as was right-back Adam Henley, goalkeeper Jason Steele, and lone striker Rudy Gestede.

But they were supported by their team-mates whose unstinting efforts were clearly appreciated at the full-time whistle by the magnificent 756 supporters who made the trek to a wet and windy south coast.

Did their team do enough to reward them with a first away win since October? Probably not. A draw was a fair result. B

ut, with Jordan Rhodes and Tom Cairney thrown on at the end, it was certainly not for the lack of trying.

Chances were few and far between in an opening period that kicked off half-an-hour later than scheduled after a five-vehicle accident near the ground.

Cherries goalkeeper Artur Boruc was caught up in the traffic yet he had little to do in a hard fought first half in which his opposite number made the only save of note to deny Marc Pugh.

But with Jay Spearing and, particularly, Chris Taylor and Corry Evans, working tigerishly to stop Eddie Howe’s boys from getting into their passing rhythm, that was the last time Steele was tested until late on.

By that stage Taylor and Evans had dragged good openings wide while Ben Marshall headed a Henley cross straight at Boruc.

But, with Bowyer throwing caution to the wind, the encounter opened up in the final 20 minutes and Steele did brilliantly to deny Yann Kermorgant who then saw another headed effort come back off the bar.

The Rovers keeper then saved more comfortably from Harry Arter, who was lucky to be on the pitch after a late tackle on Taylor, tet it was Rovers who finished the stronger and Cairney fired just wide from 20 yards before fellow substitute Jordan Rhodes set-up Gestede for a header that drifted agonisingly past the post.