ROVERS will hope that this won’t become a familiar story in front of their own fans.

A plot which started with conceding a disappointing, and scrappy, goal before missing several good chances and succumbing to defeat, with plenty of frustration at inconsistent refereeing, and blatant time-wasting going unpunished, thrown in along the way.

What was supposed to play out was Rovers coming back to Ewood Park to build on a run of four consecutive wins, three of which had come on the road, and blast AFC Wimbledon to one side. But Kwesi Appiah’s goal, 16 minutes in, gave the visitors something to hold on to , with Rovers not coming up with the answers to the puzzle that was presented to them.

That being said, they did have enough entries in to the final third, worked enough good crossing opportunities, to create the chances necessary to turn the game in their favour.

Plenty of sides will look to follow the same blueprint as the Dons did, and it is up to Rovers to come up with the answers and hope this is an exception, rather than the rule.

The subs have done the trick for Rovers in their last home game, as they blew MK Dons away late on. But here, they hit too many long balls towards Danny Graham after his introduction, while they didn’t offer Harry Chapman enough opportunities to run at his marker in the closing stages.

Bradley Dack, sent on as a replacement for Craig Conway, did try his best to add a spark, and went close with a header which was saved on the line by George Long. But even after sending on the heavy artillery from the bench, not even that was enough to open the door.

Coming in to the game, Mowbray talked about the conundrum of sticking with a winning team, or mixing things up in the third game in a week.

While hindsight may offer a different viewpoint, it is difficult to criticise going with eight players who had started each of the four wins, with captain Charlie Mulgrew, the returning Craig Conway, and Marcus Antonsson, fresh from goals in each of his last two goals, completed the line-up.

And the signs were promising early on, Dominic Samuel forcing a save out of George Long with just 22 seconds on the watch after pouncing on a loose ball.

But the visitors, a powerful and mobile side, had shown enough to indicate that they may be a threat on the counter. And while there was some good fortune to Appiah’s goal, the forward had done well to win possession inside his own half before embarking on a break forward which ended with him finding the top corner.

A shellshocked Rovers almost fell 2-0 behind, only for David Raya to tip a Dean Parrett 25-yarder round the post.

While Rovers were enjoying plenty of the ball, they were all too predictable in their play, though Samuel should have levelled midway through the half when he headed over a Conway cross.

After the break, Raya was kept busy, palming away an Appiah shot, while Derrick Williams made an excellent block to deny Parrett’s goalbound effort 10 minutes after the break.

From then on in, much of the game was played in the visitors’ half, but for all their territory, Rovers failed to carve out too many clear-cut chances.

The closest they came to levelling was a Dack header, which was palmed away off the line, with Paul Caddis then firing over from just 10 yards out.

The final 10 minutes were particularly frustrating, as the rhythm of the game was broken up by substitutions, niggling free-kicks, players receiving treatment, and very little momentum being built up.

Failing to score for the first time this season, particularly at home and after the run they had been on, was disappointing, and may well have acted as a reality check to anyone getting carried away by 12 points from their last four games.

Rovers will now be hoping these two early defeats at Ewood Park are a chapter they can put behind them.