Opposition view: Dominant Rovers '˜deserved' to beat Cobblers, claims frustrated Mowbray

Rovers spent most of the contest trailing to John-Joe O’Toole’s well-placed header, which arrived on just 11 minutes, as their 16-game unbeaten league run almost came to an end.

Despite plenty of pressure and nearly all of the possession, Blackburn struggled to really test Cobblers goalkeeper Richard O’Donnell until the 74th minute when striker Danny Graham nodded in a leveller.

Even then, though, the expected onslaught did not materialise and clear-cut chances remained at a premium right through to the full-time whistle, which confirmed a draw and therefore a dent in Blackburn’s quest for automatic promotion this season.

“We knocked on the door a lot and restricted Northampton to very few chances, they maybe had one in the second-half,” Mowbray told the club’s website afterwards.

“It was frustrating not to get what we deserved from the game because we worked extremely hard. I’m disappointed. We were miles better today than we were against Northampton in the reverse fixture last month.

“It happens in football, you can’t score three every week. We got the ball into good enough positions to score today, but it didn’t fall for us and that’s the way it went.

“It’s really difficult when you’re playing against a defence with every man in the box.

“There’s no criticism of the team from me at all today, to be honest. I think it was a fantastic effort and the performance level was really high, higher than in a lot of games, but that’s football.”

For all Blackburn’s possession and pressure, and despite what Mowbray claimed, it’s hard to recall O’Donnell being overly stretched in the visiting goal as his defence kept his workload to a minimum, with Graham’s equaliser one of few clear chances.

“You try to find weaknesses in the other team and we found one down the right, so we attacked them on our left-side,” Mowbray continued.

“But, credit to them, they blocked it up and had a physicality about them, which is what we expected. Ultimately, we didn’t get the rewards that our positive play deserved.

“I think we were dominant during the first-half as well, it just didn’t break for us. You have to take days like these on the chin, you can’t win every game.

“We deserved to win today but credit to Northampton, we felt we were in control and that’s what’s frustrating.”