BLACKBURN Rovers goal hero Paul Dickov leapt to the defence of Jay Bothroyd after the young striker was sent off during Saturday's 1-1 draw with Norwich City.

Bothroyd saw red in the 44th minute after kicking out in retaliation at Norwich's Mathias Jonson.

But although the former Arsenal youngster's dismissal left Rovers to play out the rest of the game with 10 men, Dickov insisted the dressing room were ready to forgive and forget Bothroyd's moment of madness.

"Jay knows what he has done wrong," said Dickov.

"He's a young lad who's also one hell of a good player and he'll come back from that. There's no blame attached to him, it happens and you've just got to pick yourself up.

"Jay is a great talent and I'm sure he'll learn from this and be better for the experience."

Rovers looked to be heading for a sixth straight away defeat in the Premiership after Norwich had capitalised on their numerical advantage to take a 56th minute lead through Mathias Svensson.

However, Mark Hughes' side never conceded defeat and their patience was finally rewarded when Dickov climbed to head home a richly deserved equaliser with just four minutes of the game remaining, thus securing Rovers' first away point of the season.

"We knew we were down to 10 men but in training we do a lot of overloading against the four defenders and four midfielders and that's something we work on a lot so we felt that if we did keep our shape in the second half then we would cause them problems, which we did," said Dickov.

"It was very important to get that goal.

"For a while I didn't think it was going to come but as long as there's time left, you've just got to be positive and keep believing.

"I'm a positive person and a positive thinking person and you've just got to try and keep getting yourself into the positions to score goals.

"The last thing we wanted to do was come down here and lose the game.

"The last time we went down to 10 men (against Middlesbrough) we went a goal behind and caved in a little bit but I think we've proved we are over that and we can make it hard for teams, as well as play a bit ourselves.

"I just hope this will give us the confidence to push on now.

"The lads were saying in the dressing room afterwards this makes the journey home a little bit better and it will probably make training that little bit better next week, too.

"I know it was only a draw but sometimes when it happens with 10 men it feels like you've won the game."

Although Rovers remain rooted to the foot of the table after Saturday's results, Dickov has seen grounds for optimism based on the last two performances.

And he believes Rovers are better equipped to beat the drop than his old club Leicester were last season.

"It's unfair to make comparisons with the clubs I've been at before but the talent we've got here should mean we're not relegation candidates," added the Scotland striker, who has now scored three goals this season.

NORWICH midfielder Mattias Jonson felt Jay Bothroyd deserved to be sent off for lashing out at him during Saturday's 1-1 draw at Carrow Road.

Bothroyd was dismissed for aiming a retaliatory kick at the Swede as the two battled for possession by the corner flag.

Jonson appeared to make the most of the incident by crumpling to the floor in agony but there was no doubt in his mind that Bothroyd got his just desserts.

"I haven't seen it yet on the telly so I can't say too much about it but to do something like that I believe is a red card," said the Swede.

"He pushed me, I pushed him back and then he just swung at me."