Tony Mowbray felt his side demonstrated a lack of confidence, and imbalance, as the Rovers boss confessed to not enjoying watching the 0-0 draw with Middlesbrough.

Rovers lacked fluency against Boro, struggling to test Marcus Bettinelli, with the visitors forcing the issue for the majority of the stalemate.

The Sky Sports cameras weren’t treated to a classic, as Rovers failed to score at home for a third time in four winless matches. They haven’t had such a run without victory at home since April 2017, but did show some resilience to hold out for a clean sheet after shipping six goals in their previous two fixtures.

Self-isolation issues and injury left Mowbray again without several first-team regulars, with Joe Rankin-Costello filling in at left back, while the manager moved away from the 4-3-3 system we’ve seen so far this season when naming his side which saw two changes.

The absentees have affected Mowbray’s options, and with now one win in seven Championship matches, and 11 points from 10 games, the manager is desperate to get to the international break where he hopes that will allow players to get back fit.

"Let's hope there's not many more like that. If anyone had been watching us for most of the year they'd know we’ve been pretty good,” Mowbray said.

“I said to the TV that the night they come along they get that.

“From both teams, Middlesbrough do what they do, they’re hard to play against, resilient, ask questions of you.

“For us the signs are there of the low confidence and the unbalanced team, no left-sided balance at all, no defensive-minded midfield at all, the goalkeeper (Thomas Kaminski)was settling in nicely, young Pears kept a clean sheet.

“It wasn’t nice to watch, I didn’t enjoy it.

“Let’s put the point in the bag and move on.”

Rovers’ five home games this season have seen a convincing 5-0 win over Wycombe, as well as a goal fest in the 4-2 defeat to Reading.

The three others have brought just one goal, with 0-0 draws now against Cardiff City and Middlesbrough, and a 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest where Rovers conceded a last minute goal.

Aynsley Pears collected a first clean sheet since his summer move from Boro, making smart saves in either half to keep Rovers in it, and despite conceding 13 goals in 10 matches, they have now kept five clean sheets.

Much of that was owed to the 10 blocks Rovers made, with Ryan Nyambe and Rankin-Costello equal to efforts from Hayden Coulson and Djed Spence to help keep the hosts level.

“It was a bit like watching us against Nottingham Forest, a nothing game that we lost to a last minute goal,” Mowbray said.

“It’s football, there’s no right or wrong way to play, there’s no template to success.

“You recruit players to play the way you want to play and at the moment we’re just a little depleted of what we want to do.

“The positive was that the team put their bodies on the line, a lot of blocked shots, a lot of last-ditch defending.

“It was pleasing to see some young players doing that.

“That won’t be the norm, and you’ve seen enough games to know that won’t be the norm for us.

“We’re looking forward until after the break.”