Steve Bruce felt it would have been ‘unjust’ had his side not grabbed a late equaliser to take a point from Ewood Park.

Conor Hourihane curled an injury-time free-kick beyond David Raya as Villa snatched a 1-1 draw after Bradley Dack had handed Rovers a 76th minute lead.

Bruce was left furious with the decision of referee Stephen Martin not to award a penalty when John McGinn went down under a tackle from Richie Smallwood in the first half, but didn’t comment on Dack’s disallowed goal moments before which looked to have been wrongly disallowed for offside.

“It was a relief at the end and a great free-kick from Conor Hourihane,” Bruce said.

“I thought it'd have been unjust if we'd lost the game.

“We had a blatant penalty in the first half and for some reason the referee hasn't given it.

“Everyone in the ground knew it was.

“A lead at half-time would have changed things a bit.

“Overall we're a tad disappointed, but at the same time relieved we've got something out of the match.”

While the referee didn’t deem it to be a penalty, he opted against handing McGinn a second yellow card for diving.

Commenting on the incident, Bruce told his club’s website: “It's a ridiculous decision. It's a hard job, but it's a ridiculous decision.

“To go 1-0 up away from home, they'd have left spaces as they came after us.

“When you take the lead in this division, most of the time you win. So we're a bit frustrated by that.”

Like Rovers, Villa went in to the game on the back of a 4-1 defeat before the international break.

And pleased with the response of his players, Bruce added: “It definitely was deserved. There's a frustration around in the dressing room because we didn't win.

“We've dug in and scored for the third time late on this season. There's a bit of spirit gathering again.

“We need to be a bit patient; we will get better as the season goes on.

“The attitude was much better – Blackburn haven't lost at home for a year.

“They asked us questions and put good balls into the box.

“We stuck at it. We can still improve, of course we can. And we will.

“We deserved something out of the game.”