TONY Mowbray says four points from the Easter period has to be seen as a positive for Blackburn Rovers despite being left disappointed by the draw with Bristol City.

Rovers missed the chance to move out of the bottom three, but did move within a point of safety, after a 1-1 draw at Ewood Park.

Sam Gallagher’s 12th of the season drew his side level after Tammy Abraham had given the visitors a 14th minute lead which they looked set to add to before a late Rovers fightback.

When asked if four points from six represented a good return over Easter, Mowbray told the Lancashire Telegraph: “I think we have to – but with three points we would have been out of the bottom three and the pressure would have been on someone else.

“I said to them afterwards we’ve had 12 games together, we’ve been unbeaten in nine of them, we’ve only lost three out of 12 and with three games to go we need to not lose any of those games and have to try and win as many as we can.

“I believe that they can go to Wolves and win and show what a difficult team to play against we are and hopefully nick a goal like we did at Forest and I believe we have the capabilities to do that.

“In an ideal world for us it would have been a day where we didn’t play particularly well but came away with three points, ultimately we have come away with one on a day where Forest and Birmingham both lost, so it’s a point we have to put in the bag and move on to the next three games.

“The story of the game was the changes that we managed to make and the way we clawed our way back in to the game.

“Let’s hope going to Brentford on the last day we’re in with a shout, it would be nice to go in to the last day not in the bottom three, but we are at the moment, and we have to give it all we can in three more games and see how we go.”

Mowbray stuck with the same side that had won impressively at the City Ground four days earlier, but Rovers were lacklustre prior to Gallagher’s equaliser.

However after the Southampton loanee struck with 19 minutes to play, he had what looked an excellent shout for a penalty waved away by referee Mike Jones after going down under a tackle from Korey Smith.

“Having watched it back on the laptop looks a very blatant penalty kick,” Mowbray said.

“I am not sure why it wasn’t given to be honest, he was goal-side, running in to the box and the boy falls on the back of his legs and he goes down and I’m not sure why it wasn’t given – but we have to live with that.”

Mowbray was also disappointed with the goal his side conceded, as Abraham was allowed to ghost in behind the Rovers back three to fire past David Raya.

He added: “We tried to play offside and that was a really sloppy decision from us.

“They are a good team – their shape came out on top against the way we set up, we had hoped that we would be able to dominate the ball but their work was good, they were good with the ball.

“They ultimately warranted a point for their performance, they are a good team and why they are where they are in the league I’m not too sure.

“The story of the game was the changes that we managed to make and the way we clawed our way back in to the game.

“But I’m disappointed with just a point despite how the game went.”