David Raya was at a loss to explain why Rovers weren’t themselves in a poor first half display in the 1-0 defeat to Middlesbrough.

Britt Assombalonga scored the only goal of the game on 19 minutes as Rovers fell to a fourth consecutive Championship defeat.

Derrick Williams was sent off on the stroke of half time before Rovers rallied after the break and went close to claiming an unlikely point when Danny Graham and Bradley Dack had good opportunities.

Tony Mowbray felt his players were unrecognisable in a first half performance that he viewed as one of the worst in his near two-year tenure.

Rovers keeper Raya agreed, saying: “I don’t think the first half was good enough from anyone, we were very sloppy.

“We weren’t ourselves. Going down to 10 men when Derrick was sent off killed us a little bit more.

“These things happen. It was a very poor first half in my opinion from everybody.

“When you find yourselves with 10 men it’s tough.

“Second half it looked like a different team, much more of what we’re about, but in the end we didn’t get anything out of it.”

Raya felt Rovers should have dealt with the ball forward for the Boro goal, when a mix up between Charlie Mulgrew and Jack Rodwell saw Ashley Fletcher’s shot deflected in to the path of the unmarked Assombalonga.

Rovers have now suffered back-to-back defeats at home, doubling the number of losses in front of their own fans this season from two to four.

“We had a really good record at home, hadn’t lost too many games here last year or this year,” Raya added.

“It’s tough to take losing two on the bounce at home, but it happens, so we have to find a performance on Saturday (at Birmingham).”

Rovers went close in the second period as Graham fired over from six yards before a Dack volley was brilliantly saved by Darren Randolph.

Raya was busy too, saving from Ashley Fletcher before an outstanding double save late on to deny Assombalonga.

The Spaniard said: “We knew they were going to get some chances with them having an extra man.

“We created some chances as well, could have scored a couple of goals, Randolph made one really good save.

“With my save, I’m just there to trying and keep the team in the game, which is what I did.”

Another defeat, Rovers’ ninth in their last 16 matches, leaves them in 14th, eight points shy of the top six.

Raya didn’t concede defeat in pursuit of the play-off spots, but admits they will need to find their form again, having lost each of their February fixtures having won all four in January which saw Mowbray named manager of the month.

“You never know what’s going to happen,” Raya added.

“February hasn’t been a good month for us, we’ve lost every game, so we’re going to focus on each game and treat it like a final and get as many points as we can.

“This league is very tough, every team can beat everyone.

“We have to find our form and look to get back to winning ways and take it from there.”