Tony Mowbray said Rovers shot themselves in the foot having thrown away two more points from a winning position.

Rovers looked well set to pick up a fourth home win of the campaign, only to let a 2-0 half-time lead slip for the second time as they were pegged back by Coventry City.

Goals from Joe Rothwell and Sam Gallagher had them ahead at the break, but two goals in six minutes from Tyler Walker and a Thomas Kaminski own goal saw the Sky Blues rescue a point.

Similar happened in a 2-2 draw with Luton Town last month, with Mowbray left frustrated by his side’s inability to hold out for victory.

Jan Paul van Hecke made his first appearance of the season, while Tayo Edun made his first start, as the manager made four alterations to his side, and felt a disrupted week because of illness, as Harry Pickering and Reda Khadra failed to make the squad, played its part.

Asked about the players tiring in the second half, Mowbray said: “I think a few did, Tayo was the same, he was right infront of me and I’m screaming at him to run, it’s a running game and yet he isn’t up to the level yet but then we didn’t have any other options to change that.

“We’ve had a really bad week with illness, we’ve had half a team not training, a couple of them didn’t make it.

“Dolan has trained an hour all week because he’s had a real sore throat, been in bed and on anti-biotics.

“Pickering has been the same and didn’t make, Khadra didn’t make it, we’ve had one or two others who haven’t been training all week for different reasons.

“They seem like excuses, yet the reality is that international weeks we can really prepare for that second week, prepare for the opposition, study them, get the team ready, as opposed as Tuesday night we’re going to London and have one session to prepare for QPR whereas Coventry we had a full week, but didn’t because we had half the team unavailable.

“It’s been a frustrating week for us.”

Coventry arrived at Ewood Park third in the table, but had won just once on their travels this season.

Their poor form on the road looked set to continue when Rovers led 2-0 at the break, only to hit back in the second half.

Mowbray added: “I thought it was a good game of football, two decent sides, we have to totally respect what Coventry have achieved so far this season, how good a team they are. They have really good individual footballers on the pitch and we’re aware of that and we were trying to find a way to win.

“Ultimately we shot ourselves in the foot to be honest, we got into a position where the game should have been won and yet some pretty basic errors led to their first goal and then kicking into their fans, who came and made noise, it gave them a lift and ultimately we dropped two points.

“When it went to 2-2 we seemed to get back on the front foot and it looked like we were going to win it.

“Plenty of positives for us, we know they’re a good team with plenty of good players, but we are really disappointed not to take all three points.”

Rovers have led 2-0 in four of their six home games, but as in the Luton Town game, they failed to make that count, unable to run away with the match as they did in the 5-1 win over Cardiff City.

And Mowbray said: “The bigger frustration is that we did the same against Luton, got ourselves into a commanding position and throwing two points away.

“Whether I can sit here and tell you we’ve got a mixed bag of footballers, but five or six of them are very young and they need to learn and maybe the best place to learn is on the grass.

“Two-nil up at home you should really be seeing the game out as we did against Cardiff.

“We were 3-0 up at half time then and you can run away with it when teams over-gamble and they did over-gamble a little bit, but you’ve seen their first goal, a few mistakes hand them the goal and kicking into their fans it became more difficult.

“Sat at half time you’re hoping they over-commit and you go and score a third and fourth and it looks a very one-sided game.”

Asked about a concerning pattern given it had happened before, he said: “Every game is different, Luton they really gambled and pushed on and got more direct, filled the box with bodies and got their rewards at the end.

“Coventry are a better football team, they play a different way in a different style, they over-load the midfield and the strikers give them a platform to play off and their wing-backs push on and can deliver.

“We’re trying to find a way to help this group of players be successful and I think we’re moving in the right direction but we’re all disappointed when we draw a game when we’re 2-0 up.”