Bowyer aggrieved at Rovers fortune

Rovers manager Gary Bowyer was pleased with the spirit shown by his players after nearly clawing back a 2 goal deficit at Leicester City last night. But whilst there was a feeling of pride there was also a sense of a misfortune with a contentious penalty decision on half time being the main post-match discussion point.

Rovers fell behind to a Lloyd Dyer strike before David Nugent doubled the Foxes lead from said penalty just before the interval. But Rovers came back into the things once the second half got under way with Jordan Rhodes (who else) slotting home a penalty on 70 minutes before a late surge saw a Scott Dann header calling for use of (unavailable) goal line technology near the end which may have bought about an equaliser.

But it wasn’t to be and whilst Leicester shaded possession and the shots on target, Bowyer felt the penalty call and the timing of it were key.

‘We shot ourselves in the foot with their first goal with the way we gave it away and then it is a big call right on half-time,’ Bowyer told the official website.

‘If we’d have gone in 1-0 down then it might have been a little bit different. It is a big call from the linesman and I just felt that the referee needed to be stronger because he’s got the same view as me and the same view is that Tommy Spurr played the ball first.

‘There was only one lad from the Leicester team that appealed. It was a contentious decision right at the death of the first half.

‘At half-time we are 2-0 down and we said to the lads, listen if we are going to lose the game, then we have a good go fighting and we get ourselves back in it.

Rovers could have even pinched it right at the death with a Tom Cairney effort, but the miss ensured that Rovers remain winless on the road so far this season.

‘On another day Tom Cairney’s shot at the death might have gone in and if we’d have got a goal earlier you never know,’ Bowyer continued.

‘At the death you hear the crowd encouraging the ref to blow for full-time because they were anxious a little bit.

‘That tells you how we were doing, we were giving it a right good go.’