While everyone else seems to be doing their bit to keep to Rovers’ play-off hopes alive, their inability to take care of their own may well have put an end to any lingering hopes of making the top six.
A second half of the season that promised so much on the back of six consecutive wins to end to 2021 is in danger of fizzling out after a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Stoke City.
A first half performance that lacked the intensity and urgency that would be expected of a team in their position saw them beaten by Jacob Brown’s early goal.
They again rued another poor first half display, stepping things up after the break but unable to find a way through as the goals and points dry up. Where previously the play-offs seemed the fall-back option, they are now becoming a distant hope.
A Jordan Rhodes-inspired Huddersfield Town beating Middlesbrough in the early kick-off had seen Rovers actually move up a place before they even kicked a ball.
However, an already flat Ewood turned to frustration soon after kick-off, Stoke taking the lead in just the fourth minute.
As would become a theme going forward, the visitors were afforded far too time and space, Joe Allen having an age to pick out a pass forward that was flicked on by Josh Maja into the path of Jacob Brown who when clear of the attentions of Scott Wharton rolled the ball under Thomas Kaminski.
A lack of pressure on the ball and no urgency out of possession was costing Rovers dear, unable to stop the visitors playing through them with great ease as gaps opened up all over the pitch.
Rovers won the reverse fixture in November due to their extra energy in the midfield, but there was no sign of that this time around as Lewis Travis and the recalled Bradley Johnson were continually outnumbered.
Brown was proving a handful at the head of the Stoke attack, Jan Paul van Hecke and Scott Wharton both booked for fouls on the striker, while a lack of link between the defence and attack meant Rovers weren’t able to build any forward momentum.
Calls of ‘Mowbray, sort it out’ came from the Blackburn End and there was a frustration going which would culminate in the players being booed off at the break.
For as poor as Rovers were, and dominant Stoke had been, there was very little goalmouth action.
Their sole effort on target of a desperately poor first half came two minutes before the break. Ben Brereton led the charge from just inside the Stoke half, striding into the box before seeing a low shot saved at the second attempt by the previously untroubled Jack Bonham.
The positive for Rovers was that they weren’t out of the game by half time, something that could have happened when ex-loanee Taylor Harwood-Bellis saw a shot deflected just wide from a corner conceded after Johnson sold Kaminski short with his back-pass.
Something had to change for Rovers, and first came an alteration to the personnel, Joe Rothwell, back in the squad after illness, replacing van Hecke. That saw Rovers switch to a back four and give them an extra man in midfield.
While the home crowd did their best, there still wasn’t much to get excited about, Stoke negotiating any expected response with some comfort.
A knock sustained by Bradley Dack in the warm-up for the second half ruled him out of contention, with John Buckley Rovers’ second change as he replaced Johnson.
Rovers had switched their frontline with Brereton now the central striker, but it was Gallagher, from a central position, who threatened an equaliser with 20 minutes remaining. He rose highest to meet a deep Pickering cross, his looping header clawed away by Bonham.
Buckley had made an impact, with Mowbray turning to Ryan Hedges as his final change with 15 minutes to go.
Hedges started a move which ended with him linking up with Gallagher whose low shot was saved by Bonham at the second attempt.
Rovers were trying to build pressure, with Gallagher leading the charge, his run down the left with six minutes to go ending with his shot clipping the bar on the way over the top with Bonham well beaten.
Stoke’s hope of making the game safe on the break saw Brown have a shot saved by Kaminski and his follow-up seemingly by the arm of Lenihan, but those appeals for a penalty were waved away.
Hedges was then denied by a fine one-handed Bonham save deep into injury time, with Brereton only able to find the side-netting with his follow-up.
That leaves Rovers facing the prospect of an exciting second half of the season fizzling out.
Not playing again until the trip to Preston North End next Monday, by then their hopes could be all but over.
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