Cardiff City boss Steve Morison felt his side went ‘toe-to-toe’ with Rovers but bemoaned their quality in the final third as they failed to break through.

Rovers left the Cardiff City Stadium with all three points thanks to Joe Rothwell’s first half goal and saw out a seventh clean sheet in eight games after Ryan Nyambe’s late red card.

The Bluebirds struggled to test Thomas Kaminski, a second half Curtis Nelson header tipped away by the ‘keeper as close as they came.

The hosts did dominate the ball but their best route to goal appeared to be from set plays as they peppered the Rovers box with long throws and crosses.

It left Morison to reflect on a day where he felt they got plenty right, apart from the most crucial aspect of finding a way of putting the ball in the net.

He said: “We weren't good enough in the final third, but we dominated the game, apart from maybe the first 10 minutes – but we couldn't put the ball in the back of the net.

"We're frustrated, because we've lost a game which we should have got something out of.

"We didn't give up too many chances, and we dominated with the ball. We were playing a top team in the division, but I understand that all of that is irrelevant if we don't win the game.

"We've gone toe-to-toe with Blackburn. We'll keep on performing, and we'll keep doing what we're doing. But, if we play like that and get better in the final third, we've got a much better chance of winning games of football.

"We're going to sustain our work defensively, giving up very few chances. But, there have been too many games where we haven't scored.

"We really controlled the game. Two thirds of the game was excellent, but the final third has got to be better. We have got to go and put the ball in the back of the net.”

Rovers themselves only managed two shots on target, both in the first half.

It was Rothwell’s curling effort that found the back of the net as they extended their unbeaten run to 10 games, with Cardiff’s poor run at home continuing.

Morison added: "Like I said to them in the dressing room. We are going to sustain our work defensively, giving up very, very little chances, we are going to sustain our work in terms of progression from back to front, but we are going to have to spend a lot more time over the next two weeks getting better in the final third."