THIS may not have been the win that would have transformed a good week into another excellent one but it did underline the progress Rovers are making.

Rewind exactly 12 months ago and a 3-0 defeat at the same venue left them floundering in 13th, five points off the top six and a massive 15 behind the summit.

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Fast forward a year and Saturday’s draw at the Amex Stadium leaves Gary Bowyer’s side eight points better off than they were at this stage last season and, crucially, just one shy of the play-off places and five from a table-topping Derby County team who should win the league by some distance if their outstanding showing at Ewood Park earlier in the campaign is anything to go by.

Make no mistake, going into the final international break of 2014, Rovers are in the mix.

They continue, however, to be frustrated by the glass ceiling hovering over their heads.

Bar from a brief few hours after the home victory over Reading, they have so far been unable to smash their way into the top six and stay there, either this season or last.

All that matters, of course, is that Rovers are in there come May 2.

But it would come as a boost to both supporters and players if they were to break through into the sought-after spots before then.

Saturday presented another opportunity for Rovers to do just that.

But the fact that they did not take it should not lead them to be criticised.

If Tuesday’s 2-2 draw at 10-men Millwall was undoubtedly two points dropped, this was one gained, even if the reward was to move just the one notch higher up the standings to seventh.

The counter argument is that a team with promotion aspirations should be dispatching a struggling side like Brighton who look a shadow of the one that has reached the play-offs for two years running.

That said Sami Hyypia’s men are not as bad as their lowly position suggests and only one team, third-placed Middlesbrough, has won at their ground since the opening day of the campaign.

The Amex remains a difficult place to go and Rovers boss Bowyer was not the first and certainly will not be the last manager to switch his system to negate the Seagulls’ five-man midfield.

That meant Jordan Rhodes was dropped to the bench for the first time in the league since January 18.

Was it justified?

Ultimately you would have to say yes.

If it was Bowyer’s intention to prevent draw-specialists Brighton from making the most of the wide open spaces that their pitch provides then he got his tactics spot-on.

Bar from an opening for Sam Baldock in a pedestrian first half, which he tamely fired straight at Jason Steele, Rovers were never opened up, with captain Grant Hanley producing one of his best performances of the season.

Bowyer must have been tearing his hair out, then, with the way the Seagulls were allowed to open the scoring three minutes before the break.

Shane Duffy, the fit-again Lee Williamson and Ben Marshall were unable to stop Jake Forster-Caskey’s corner from travelling to the back post where Gary Gardner, the goal-scoring hero of his side’s morale-boosting 1-0 win over Wigan Athletic in the week, escaped Markus Olsson and dragged a right-footed shot into the bottom corner.

There is no question Rovers have improved defensively since their last defeat, to Rotherham United eight games ago.

But, as was the case at the Den four days earlier, they are still being punished for lapses in concentration.

They are also making life hard for themselves by waiting until half-time to get going.

In their defence they were no better or no worse than Brighton in an opening period that was lacking in quality if not effort.

Perhaps it was the fact that both teams were playing their third matches in another marathon week in the relentless slog that is the Championship.

And perhaps it would have been different had teenage Seagulls goalkeeper Christian Walton not denied Tom Cairney a certain goal in the eighth minute, after Ewood old boy Gordon Greer headed a Marshall cross toward his own goal, and had Ryan Tunnicliffe not fired wastefully wide five minutes later when the ball broke to him on the edge of the area.

But Rovers did improve after the restart, as did the contest itself, and the goal that stretched their unbeaten run to seven games, from a now thrillingly familiar source, was one to remember.

The impressive Williamson dinked the ball out wide to Olsson, whose left-wing cross was brilliantly headed in by talismanic top-scorer Rudy Gestede, who somehow managed to loop the ball over Walton and into the net off a combination of the bar and post.

After a bout of head tennis in the box Gestede then set-up Hanley for an opportunity the otherwise superb centre back should have converted.

With Rovers on top the magnificent 835 travelling fans behind the goal called for the introduction of Rhodes.

But their hero remained on the bench until injury-time and the final opportunity of the afternoon went the way of Brighton after their former winger Craig Conway lost the ball 25 yards from goal and Steele gathered Joe Bennett’s well-stuck drive at the second attempt.