Rovers stuck with the same side that beat Charlton at Brentford but it wasn’t a straightforward decision, according to Tony Mowbray.

John Buckley kept his place in the side after a goalscoring return to the side seven days earlier but was replaced by Sam Gallagher in the second half.

The attacker was back from two matches out with a groin problem and Mowbray had given plenty of thought to starting Gallagher in a 4-3-3 formation.

In the end he did switch systems, going to 4-4-2 with Buckley out wide, and the manager admits the youngster found it tough with the amount of defensive tracking he had to do.

Bees full back Rico Henry enjoyed a lot of joy galloping forward from left back in the first half, and Mowbray says playing Gallagher up against him had been a consideration.

He explained: “We gave it a lot of thought. Gallagher, against Rico Henry who is a big threat for Brentford from left back, we could have stood him out on the right and hit a lot of diagonals to him.

“When we won here 3-1 a few years ago we did that and that was a consideration. But John Buckley did ever so well at Charlton and we felt he deserved another go.

“He found it tough physically, he’s just a young boy, but he played his part. You know our feelings on John Buckley, he’s a young footballer we really like. Some days he will find it tough.

“It needed that bit more physicality so Gallagher came on and played his part and gave them a few problems.

“We’re a bit frustrated, it’s easy to stand and moan about the referee, but they’re a good football team, but the frustration is from being 2-0 up and then not finishing it off when Adam was clean through with the keeper.”

Christian Walton impressed between the posts for Rovers, making a string of saves in the first half, denying Said Benrahma on three separate occasions, before denying the Algerian two minutes from time to earn Rovers a point.

Mowbray didn’t feel Rovers came under any undo pressure for an extended period of time, but was pleased with his goalkeeper’s contribution.

He added: “There was one late on, but not many that I thought ‘that was a great save’, there were a lot that were straight at him.

“His hands were very clean and sure. I can’t remember sitting there thinking ‘wow, what a save’. My point is that it wasn’t a game where he was making great saves.

“I watched the game on Friday when the Fulham goalkeeper made three or four amazing saves.

“He had some saves to make, and the stats will show there were some shots on target for them, but a lot of them were straight at our goalkeeper.

“I thought we came here and coped alright against a team that can give you lots of problems and can overrun teams at times.

“Apart from a 10 minute spell, I didn’t think that was the case. I thought first half we did well, and the last part of the game we saw out well. I know they had the ball around our box but I thought we defended well and put our bodies on the line.”