Tony Mowbray described it as ‘an awkward night’ for Rovers as they were held at home by Stoke City.

Rovers had the majority of the play, and territory, but couldn’t find a way past Jack Butland in the Potters goal as they missed the chance to cut the gap to the top six to two points.

It means Rovers have now taken just nine points from home games against the teams that currently occupy the bottom seven spots in the Championship, a frustration for boss Mowbray.

He felt the way Stoke, under former Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill, set up made it difficult for his side to fashion clear-cut chances on a night where there was little for the home fans to get too excited about.

“Ultimately we’re left frustrated. I think they came with a pretty, decent defensive set-up,” Mowbray said.

“Michael has obviously managed his country against some top, top teams and knows how to set up a team to defend. They played deep to nullify our speed in behind, they narrowed their midfield to stop our No.10s on the ball and it was difficult to get through them.

“It was an awkward night. Did we do enough to nick it 1-0? It would have been nice to come away with a goal from a set play or a ricochet, we’d have taken 1-0, but Stoke have some experienced players and an experienced manager and we’re left a bit frustrated.”

Stoke offered little threat going forward, particularly in the second half, as Rovers claimed a 12th clean sheet of the season, matching the tally of last season.

“They’re fighting for their lives, every point is a prisoner, so to come to Ewood where we’ve had a decent record for a few years they are probably happy with that and then try and win their home games. They did their job,” Mowbray said.

“Ultimately we’re left frustrated. We knocked on the door a few times, I don’t know how many shots we had, but we found it hard to get through as we normally do.

“Let’s not be too disappointed, we have another opportunity on Saturday against a different team who will come and play on the front foot, because they are a team with a definitive way of playing and a philosophy and a way of playing that goes back a number of years.

“That will be a good football match on Saturday.”

Joe Rothwell and Sam Gallagher were brought back in to the starting line-up, and lasted almost 80 minutes before Mowbray turned to his bench, replacing them with Dominic Samuel and Joe Rankin-Costello.

And Mowbray added: “Just to start Joe was a big gamble for me really. He’s trained two days in four weeks, yet he looked pretty sharp in training. I didn’t expect him to get as long as he did to be honest.

“It’s difficult to bring him off because he might not do anything for 10 minutes and then can pick it up and go past four people like they aren’t there.

“You leave him on another five minutes, but what’s important is the next 11 games and you have to be careful. Sam was a similar scenario, he’s had a back problem that’s giving him a bit of grief, so we made the changes.”