Rovers reporter Rich Sharpe picks out four talking points from the 4-3 win over Reading.

SECOND SEASON SYNDROME

As Adam Armstrong was scoring his 15th Championship goal of the season, Sam Gallagher notched his fifth to win the game late on.

That matches the tally that Armstrong got in the league last season after his move from Newcastle United, a figure bumped up to nine through four strikes in the cup competitions.

Gallagher has one in the Carabao Cup, so is three behind, but the perception would be that Armstrong’s season last year was more productive than Gallagher’s this.

Price-tags will come into it, Armstrong’s £1.75m now looking like something of a bargain at a time when two other price-tags are raised with every passing discussion, and with some validity. To prise Armstrong away from Ewood now you’d like to think it would take near eight figures.

Armstrong started 31 games last season, and made 13 substitute appearances, playing around 400 minutes more than Gallagher who has three fewer starts, and the same number of sub appearances.

Where Armstrong benefited was that Ben Brereton’s £6m deal was Rovers’ most significant bit of business last summer, hence the increased scrutiny on him, as well as the goals flowing around them.

Danny Graham, Bradley Dack and Charlie Mulgrew, regular sources of goals in the League One campaign, contributed 40 between them last season. That figure has dropped to 13 this campaign.

So at £5m, Rovers’ only financial outlay this summer, Gallagher would have been expected to provide a greater source of goals. His manager admits it has been a challenging season for the 24-year-old, but this was the second time he's come off the bench to score a winning goal.

His manager wants him to show a greater hunger for goals, and there were promising signs as he demonstrated great desire, to plant a header in at the far post when meeting a fine Harry Chapman cross. 

More of the same will be needed, but a second season similar to Armstrong’s would be a pathway Rovers would hope he follows.  

The challenge for Mowbray is finding a role for Gallagher in the team which allow them to best utilise him. 

Rovers will need to prioritise other areas of the pitch with their summer recruitment, so will need Gallagher and Brereton, who notched his first of the campaign to open the scoring, to step up where Armstrong has this.

ABSENT FRIENDS

The names of Tosin Adarabioyo, Dominic Samuel and Danny Graham were absent from the Rovers teamsheet, the latter for the first time in 108 matches.

All three see their deals at the club expire next week, but Stewart Downing, another of the out of contract players, was among the substitutes.

Mowbray said post-match that Manchester City loanee Adarabioyo had likely played his last game for the club, as despite Rovers’ interest in bringing him back to Ewood Park next season, a return seems highly unlikely.

Samuel, who had started the three previous matches, may well be departing too, given Mowbray’s post-match comments, his three-year stay looking to be at an end.

That is quite the turnaround, and could become clearer in the coming days, given Samuel had started the crunch clash at Millwall just four days earlier. 

Mowbray will sit down with his squad for post-season appraisals next week, with Graham also in the final days of his current deal.

Graham will be 35 when the season starts, and has seen his game-time limited this calendar year, but would like to stay should the right deal be forthcoming.

Mowbray expects the striker to feature in some form at Kenilworth Road for what will be appearance number 600 of his fine career. What happens after that, remains up in the air.

He was at Ewood yesterday, as was Adarabioyo, but whether he’s pulled on the famous blue and white halves for the final time at Ewood, is yet to be decided.

ACADEMY BLOSSOMS

A back four of Academy graduates, and Lewis Travis just in front, to start the match, supplemented before the finish by Jack Vale and John Buckley.

Darragh Lenihan captained the side, and by the end was the oldest Rovers player on the pitch at 26.

Making an impressive debut alongside him was Hayden Carter who will hope to have pushed his name to the front of the queue as a host of young central defenders at the club jockey for position.

Vale would have capped off his debut with a goal, were it not for the crossbar, and there were some proud Academy staff sat among the directors box seats at Ewood watching on.

Rovers have the quantity of numbers coming through, and they will hope some can follow in the footsteps of Ryan Nyambe and Travis, and now seemingly Joe Rankin-Costello, in becoming firm fixtures in the team.

They will need to be supplemented with quality additions from outside, but the Academy is doing its job and bringing great numbers through, with Mowbray rightfully enthused by many of them.

SIGNING OFF AT EWOOD

Just three weekends shy of a year since their first home match of the season, Rovers rounded off their 23 Ewood fixtures with their 10th win, matching the same number of last year.

Only in 2013/14 have they won more points at Ewood, with 40 compared to 39, a two-point improvement on last season.

But still there feels a sense of frustration. The home defeats to newly-promoted duo Charlton and Luton, back-to-back draws over the festive period against Wigan and Birmingham, and then again just before lockdown against Stoke and Swansea, still linger in the mind. 

So while just four teams have left Ewood with three points, and two of those sitting first and fourth in the league, more than half (13), have left with a result.

While Mowbray is right to point out that Rovers have been hard to beat at their headquarters, chalking up more points next season will help bridge the gap to the promotion contenders.