Gary Rowett said Rovers played with an extra aggression and energy and felt that stemmed from the changes that opposite number Tony Mowbray made.

Rovers, on the back of six defeats in seven, opted to make six alterations for the trip to The Den and came away with a first win since January courtesy of goals from Bradley Dack and Sam Gallagher.

Rowett felt those changes may have come on the back of ‘desperation’ given Rovers’ form, while after a midweek win over Preston North End, which meant Millwall had lost just once in 11, the Lions boss resisted the temptation to change.

And he said: “That’s the little bit of frustration and disappointment, it’s one of those games where you think can we go again from Tuesday?

“It’s difficult to make the relevant changes. When you look at the opportunity (lost) to bring in Maikel Kieftenbeld, Ryan Leonard, Kenneth Zohore, Murray Wallace, players that would likely be playing in our team, just to have those extra options coming in fresh, it makes it difficult.

“I had to pick the same team again, Blackburn made six changes, maybe with a little bit of desperation having lost six of the last seven. But they certainly had a bit more energy than us and a bit more aggression in how they played early on in the game. The second goal made it a pretty disappointing afternoon for us.”

Rowett felt his side conceded two ‘poor goals’ and pointed to a stroke of fortune for Dack’s opener that took a deflection off Shaun Hutchinson before flying beyond Bartosz Bialkowski.

He added: “We concede two poor goals. At the start of the game when Blackburn break and we have chances to clear the ball, we don’t defend with enough aggression. They get a bit of fortune. I think the shot’s going wide, but it gets deflected off the back of Hutchy’s head and it sends Bart the wrong way.

“After that we huffed and puffed and got in decent areas but the last little bit would let us down. As the game goes on we get some chances. Matt Smith has a reasonable chance early in the second half, Scott Malone forces the keeper into a save and hits the post, Jon Dadi forces the keeper into the save on the rebound and George Evans has a good opportunity and maybe has more time than he realises.”