This was the first time in Tony Mowbray's tenure that Elliott Bennett, Danny Graham and Charlie Mulgrew all failed to get any game-time in a league fixture, while Richie Smallwood, another of the League One promotion winners, has made just one matchday squad this season. 

Here, Rovers ended the game with seven Academy graduates on the pitch, including two debutants, and Darragh Lenihan the oldest at 26.

How heavily some of those young players are utilised next season will depend upon a number of factors, but there does feel something of a changing of the guard at Rovers.

A rebuild is undoubtedly required, a goalkeeper and centre half are top of the priority list, but more faces will depart than we’ve seen in any single summer under Mowbray.

Having shaped his team for the League One campaign, Rovers’ personnel has felt settled ver since, only 71 starts were made by ‘new’ signings last season. There was a little more change last summer, with that figure rising to 191 this campaign.

But Mowbray, as he enters a pivotal summer, is enthused by the prospect of re-modelling this squad once again.

From the team which was promoted at Doncaster in April 2018, only Darragh Lenihan and Adam Armstrong started here. Corry Evans and Bradley Dack are injured, but the roles of the likes of Bennett, Charlie Mulgrew, Derrick Williams, Richie Smallwood and Graham have diminished to varying degrees, while David Raya and Craig Conway have since moved on.

It was Mowbray who said some fans could become disillusioned by successive mid-table finishes, and he knows it is his job to instil a fresh look, and impetus, in to the group.

And how pleased he will have been to see his three seven-figure cash buys all scoring, as well as Joe Rothwell, for the second successive home match, a player  whose end product has been called in to question by his manager.

Whether Mowbray has similar funds to be able to splash this summer are yet to be learned, but he sees this summer as an ‘opportunity for the club’.

“I think sometimes you get to the end of the cycle and the manager leaves, or the team changes, the team moves on. I think there’s an opportunity for us to change the dynamics of the team, create a young, dynamic, fast, exciting creative football team,” he said.

“The stalwarts of two years ago, Smallwood, Bennett, Graham, Mulgrew, those players that played just about every game in those days, the team has a different feel and look about it now, and I personally would like to think the team has some assets in it, some financial assets, some value and the value is on the pitch for our football club. Lenihan, Travis, Dack, Armstrong, all really talented footballers who hopefully can push us in the right direction.

“If we can get the recruitment right, using our Academy and some of the young players, but also some loans, free transfers or signings, hopefully we can keep the team moving in the right direction.”

Improving the mentality will just be as key as the quality of personnel added, with Rovers too often this season, and last, buckling under the pressure and underperforming when it mattered most.

That was the case at Millwall, where a fourth defeat since the re-start mathematically ended their play-off hopes. But with no pressure here, they played with fluency and freedom, moving the ball with purpose, and could easily have scored more goals than they did.

Brereton wasn’t called for in the crunch game at Millwall, an unused substitute, but in from the start as one of five changes he made an instant impact, with a calm left footed finish.

The defending left a lot to be desired, and Rovers were pushing forward at will, and looking threatening with every forward move.

They doubled their lead inside six minutes, the king of the long-rangers Adam Armstrong sliding home on his left foot after being found by Joe Rothwell.

That set the tone for what would transpire for the rest of the afternoon, though Rovers weren’t going to have it all their own way as John Swift curled in a fine free-kick. The Blackburn End has seen some of those since the re-start.

Three goals inside 15 minutes, there was something of a lull, with no more scoring before the break, despite Armstrong taking aim at every given opportunity.

It was from range that Joe Rothwell made it 3-1, not for the first time Rovers taking a short corner, with his effort taking a deflection en route to wrong-footing Rafael Cabral.

At that point it felt like the shoreline would be anything Rovers wanted it to be, Brereton slashing wide at the far post when he should have at least hit the target, before they were pegged back by two quickfire goals.

Two substitutes combined to great effect, a stunning Jordan Obita cross headed expertly beyond Christian Walton by Sam Baldock, before he turned provider for Yakou Meite to glance home.

That came from a Rovers mistake, as Travis wanted too much time on the edge of his own box, as they began to look ragged. But they found a moment of quality to win it, Harry Chapman whipping in a cross where the arriving Sam Gallagher powered a header home.

There would have been the perfect end in added time, only for Jack Vale’s curling effort to come back off the bar.

Only one game remains, and then the real hard work begins.