Tony Mowbray felt his players were unrecognisable in the first half of their 1-0 defeat to Middlesbrough.

Rovers were beaten at Ewood Park by Britt Assombalonga’s 19th minute header and spent the second half with 10 men after Derrick Williams was sent off.

There was a spirit fightback from Rovers in the second half, having made three half-time alterations, but ultimately not enough to stop them falling to a fourth consecutive defeat for the first time since December 2016.

“I didn’t recognise many of them first half I would have to say. I’ve been here two years next week and not sure we’ve played as badly as that for 45 minutes in those two years,” Mowbray said.

“We didn’t compete, I’m not sure where it came from.

“The second half was better, we gave it a go against a good team with an extra man, created some chances, as did they.

“We nearly sneaked something in the second half which was much better, but the first half we don’t see want any performances of that level ever again.”

Rovers lacked intensity in a first half in which they failed to have a shot on target and switched to a back three in a bid to contain the visitors after just 25 minutes.

Having gone down to 10 men, the boss made three half-time changes, bringing on Ryan Nyambe, Amari’i Bell and Lewis Travis who helped bring some energy to what had been a lacklustre performance.

“It’s a concern to me because I don’t know why we didn’t see it,” Mowbray added of the first half.

“It was a frustrating opening 45 minutes for us.

“The second half we passed the ball forward. For two years we have preaching habits to this team and they seemed to go out of the window in that first 45 minutes.”

“I’m not sure what the mentality was going in to the game, they felt alright before kick-off in the dressing room. We knew how big a game it was.

“But the evidence was there to watch, there was a lack of spark, a lack of fire, lack of intensity, and ultimately I’m not sure it where it came from.

“We will go through it (on Monday) and try and break it down and found the answers.”