TONY Mowbray felt Adam Armstrong, and Rovers, were ‘a bit off it’ as they fell to a first defeat in eight games at Bristol City.

Famara Diedhiou came off the bench to score the only goal of the night, nine minutes from time, to decide what had been a game Rovers had dominated.

They had 21 shots across the 90 minutes, nine of them coming from the boot of top scorer Armstrong, but failed to find a way beyond Dan Bentley.

Armstrong did manage five on target, but didn’t make the most of the chances that came his way, including when denied when found by an excellent Harvey Elliott pass on the half hour.

However, several opportunities came when opponents were better placed, particularly in the first half where he opted to cut back and shoot on his left foot when Sam Gallagher making ground in the middle for a first-time pass.

And Mowbray said of the striker: “Adam was a bit off it and I said that to him at half time and at the end. It’s great that he can have nine shots on his own but he’s normally a bit more clinical than that.

“The one in the first half, a better touch and he’s clean through one-on-one with the keeper, but he has a poor touch and it takes him a bit wide.

“Normally he’s just running through on goal and will slide it under the ‘keeper.

“There were a few of those instances where it just got away from him a little bit, he was a bit loose but it was great that he can have so many shots at goal.

“I did feel that we were a little bit off, I would have expected us to come here and ask more questions of them.”

Daniel Ayala missed Rovers’ best chance of the night, heading wide from a corner, while Elliott and Joe Rothwell also passed up good opportunities to test the keeper as Bristol City held out for their sixth clean sheet of the season and bounced back from a weekend defeat to Birmingham City.

As Rovers failed to score for a fifth time this season, Mowbray added: “We were off the boil, a bit loose in our final third play.

“Some of the chances we had have been going in the net and we’re disappointed.

“I didn’t feel we were going to lose the game, we’re at the stage where we can come to Bristol City and believe we’re good enough to win these games.

“They had some opportunities as well but I felt we misfired a little bit.

“Back-to-back away games are really tough at the moment, we have two home games now and hopefully we can have give the players a bit of a breather and a bit of a rest and then try and get some points in those games.”

Diedhiou came off the bench and proved to be the matchwinner as his shot on the turn, under pressure from Derrick Williams, found a way beyond Thomas Kaminski.

Rovers brought many of their defensive worries upon themselves, with Kaminski guilty at times of playing his side into trouble, but he wasn’t overly extended other than the goal.

Mowbray felt Rovers could have dealt with the lead up to the goal better, as Nahki Wells’ deep cross was kept alive to present Diedhiou with the chance, but still saw positives from his side.

He added: “That’s football. I’ve looked at the goal back and we could have defended it better, particularly at the back post when the lad kept it in play, it was a goal out of nothing really.

“It’s frustrating. I’d we’d have gone away with a 0-0 we’d have been disappointed, so to lose 1-0 we’re even more disappointing.

“But there’s a lot of games, it’s a long, long season, the team is believing they’re going in the right direction and we’ll keep going.

“We have two home games coming up, even though one of them is Norwich City who are top of the table, they’re great challenges and we’ll look forward to that.”