Lewis Holtby felt it was a missed opportunity for Rovers to only take two points from back-to-back home games with Wigan and Birmingham.

The attacking midfielder was recalled to the side for the Boxing Day clash that was decided by two penalties.

Adam Armstrong put Rovers ahead with his sixth of the season, but the lead was shortlived as Kevin Mrabti levelled things up from the spot at the other end.

With Wigan arriving bottom of the league on Monday, and Birmingham on the back of three successive defeats, Holtby says confidence was high going in to both.

And he admits those are the kind of games Rovers need to be turning in to wins if they are to sustain a top six push.

He said: “I think if you think about the last two, we’ve had two home games and after a very good run, we were thinking about getting two wins.

“We only got two points, the positive is that we didn’t lose, but still, if we have ambitions we need to try and win these type of games.

“It was a scrappy game of football, lots of balls in the air, lots of fights, balls in the air, 50-50s.

“We went 1-0 up and didn’t really get the chance to keep it at that or get a second goal.

“We’re a bit frustrated of course, but there’s not a lot of time to be frustrated or down because we have another two games coming up in a short period of time.”

Armstrong sent the ‘keeper the wrong way after Sam Gallagher had been fouled by Wes Harding.

But the referee was soon pointing to the spot at the other end as Amari’i Bell was adjudged to have tripped Jacques Maghoma.

With Rovers having kept four clean sheets in six matches heading in to the game Holtby says there was a confidence in seeing the game out after taking the lead.

“We thought that as well, but we allowed them in our own half, kept them alive,” he added.

“We will analyse the game and see what we can do better and get back to playing football and playing new games.

“It’s a short period of time, a lot of games, so we can be frustrated for 24 hours but we have to pick ourselves up and look to go to Huddersfield and try and get three points.”