Bradley Dack felt Rovers stepped up their game at Newcastle United and were unfortunate not to guarantee themselves a place in round four.

Dack scored his 13th of the season at St James’ Park, heading Rovers in to the lead, only to be pegged back by a late Matt Ritchie penalty as the game at St James’ Park ended 1-1.

Rovers will fancy their chances of progression in next week’s replay at Ewood Park, with the fourth round draw set to take place this evening.

Dack felt Rovers had done enough to cause an upset against the Premier League side, and believes there are plenty of positives to take.

“I don’t score many with my head so it was nice to see that one go in,” the 25-year-old said.

“It was a brilliant ball from Benno. He said to me afterwards that he will keep feeding me the ball and I will put them in.

“It was lovely to score at that end, and I think we more than deserved it at the time.

“We probably deserved to win the game overall but it wasn’t meant to be, so it was a tough one to take.”

Dack is usually rested for cup ties, but manager Tony Mowbray went with a strong team, making just one change from the team which beat West Brom on New Year’s Day.

“Coming to a Premier League side and at a stadium like this, I was really keen to play,” he added.

“It was nice to be picked, and hopefully I did myself justice.

“As a player you want to play in stadiums like this and in front of crowds like this.

“You relish it, and naturally step your game up.”

Newcastle pressed for a late winner, keen to avoid a replay, after Ritchie successfully converted the penalty won by Ayoze Perez.

Rovers have had a bad habit of conceding goals in quick succession, and are without a clean sheet since November 3.

But Dack added: “I think we have broken the habit of conceding goals in quick succession.

“It was something we’d been struggling with, and we could easily have gone under after we conceded the goal so that shows something about the team that we didn’t do it against West Brom, or against Newcastle.

“We will take the positives out of that.”

The Newcastle cup tie was Rovers’ fifth game in the space of 21 days. That included games against the top four sides in the Championship, and a cup tie at Premier League team Newcastle.

It has been a particularly tough run, with a win over West Brom coming after three consecutive defeats.

With a trip to Millwall this weekend, and a home match with struggling Ipswich to follow the replay, Dack is hoping this can be a chance for Rovers to try and claw their way back in to the top half.

Mowbray has afforded the players an extra day off, and Dack said: “Everyone knows the Christmas period is tough, you don’t get much time with your families with all the game and travelling.

“Now that’s over, it will be nice to get a few days off, recharge the batteries and go again against Millwall on Saturday.

“It’s been a tough run in the Championship.

“We stopped the rot against West Brom and now we’ve got three games on paper that people will say we should get a fair amount of points from.

“But every game in this league is tough.

“Millwall is a tough place to go, Hull are flying, but we will back our abilities and work hard in training to get ourselves ready for the games.”