Both managers reflected post-match on a game they felt their side didn’t deserve to lose.

This was 90 minutes of one team trying to attack and win the game, but struggling, against one who simply wouldn’t in a bid not to lose, something they almost achieved.

This wasn’t a great watch, far from easy on the eye, though Rovers will point to the mitigating factors of it taking two to tango, as well as the performance of a referee who seemed determined to suck any intensity out of a lifeless game.

Neither team really deserved anything other than nil, but for intent alone, Rovers will feel it was only they who could lay claim to deserving the three points which moved them up to eighth in the table.

QPR have enjoyed an excellent turnaround in fortunes, built on a defence which was chasing a fifth clean sheet in six games.

So Tony Mowbray accepted that falling behind to Rangers could have spelled a great deal of difficulty, but his options from the bench helped turn the game in their favour.

Rovers could well view it as a level of respect that the most in-form team in the league should value taking a point from Ewood Park so highly.

That is something they had to become accustomed to last season, and may well need to do more as the season goes on.

If it does then they will need to show more imagination than they did here, but for the sixth time this season they managed to come out on the right side of a one goal game.

What it did do though was move them to within striking distance of the top six and mean this is now more than simply just a good start to the season.

Rovers had shown promise in the early stages, with Danny Graham squandering an excellent opening inside the opening 60 seconds. Bradley Dack tried to weave his way in to the box, with the ball running loose to Graham, but Joe Lumley cut down the angle available to him by saving with his legs.

Late in the half, a neat flick from Dack sent Graham in the clear, but his shot failed to find the target.

In between, some mystifying referee decisions from Peter Bankes led to grievances from both sides as the stop-start nature of the game certainly didn’t help Rovers’ quest to break down a QPR defence chasing a fifth clean sheet in six games.

Penalty appeals were waved away as Amari’i Bell went down in the box just after the half hour, while eight players in all would be carded.

Jayson Leutwiler enjoyed a quiet afternoon on a rare start, with the closest he came to conceding being when Derrick Williams headed the ball on to the back of the excellent Darragh Lenihan, as it drifted wide of the post.

The more the game meandered, the clearer it became that one goal would likely be enough for either side, but that Rovers’ options off the bench could prove key as QPR threatened little.

There has been great debate about Ben Brereton’s position when utilised off the bench, but it was from a wide area in which he would have a match winning impact. Driving in to the box from the right flank, he went down under the challenge of Josh Scowen, with referee Bankes awarding the spot kick.

With no Charlie Mulgrew, absent with a rib injury, Bradley Dack took over the responsibility, and showed his cool, as after a long wait, found the back of the net from 12 yards.

QPR, who had time-wasted their way through much of the game, then tried to show a level of urgency but Rovers spent much of the four added minutes with the ball by the opposition’s corner flag. 

Fans stayed behind after the final whistle to enjoy the fireworks laid on by the club to mark their 143rd birthday. And as they cast their eyes up to the sky, Rovers’ too are on the rise.