GARY Bowyer expressed his frustration with the officials after insisting Blackburn Rovers did not deserve to lose their relegation crunch clash at Sheffield Wednesday this afternoon.

Rovers were beaten 3-2 at Hillsborough to slip into the relegation zone, but Bowyer felt his side did enough to secure a result - only to see decisions go against them.

The caretaker boss was unhappy that Owls keeper Chris Kirkland was not sent off for hauling down David Dunn for Rovers' early penalty.

Then he was left baffled by the verdict of a linesman to award Sheffield Wednesday a penalty for a push by Josh Morris, allowing the home side to go 2-1 up.

And he felt his side's second half performance merited at least a draw - levelling through Scott Dann, only for Jermaine Johnson to hand the Wednesday victory with a 25-yard stunner.

Asked if he felt his side deserved to lose, Bowyer said: "No. I thought the honesty, the work rate and the passion the lads showed, I can't fault them.

"Ours was a definite penalty, the goalie pulls him back when he's clean through on goal and going to score but he gets a yellow card.

"For their penalty their lad goes down like he's been knocked down by a truck. No disrespect to our left back Josh Morris, but he's not built like a truck.

"The linesman possibly crumbled under the pressure a little bit, I don't know, you'll have to ask him.

"These things change games but the way we responded was a credit to the lads."