Tony Mowbray felt there was a naivety to his side as they failed to break through against 10-man Swansea City.

Michael Obafemi’s first half goal proved to be the difference as the hosts hung on after Ryan Manning was sent off eight minutes into the second half.

Rovers toiled in their search for an equaliser but did create several good chances, two falling the way of captain Darragh Lenihan, but they failed to make the most of the opportunities.

Mowbray was disappointed with the goal that Rovers conceded, going in on the back of nine clean sheets in 11 games, feeling that goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski could have helped his defence with his starting position, as Obafemi headed in a Jamie Paterson cross.

Rovers missed the chance to extend the gap to third-place Bournemouth, and speaking after the game, Mowbray said: “Missed opportunities.

“The game, until the sending off, went as we thought.

“I thought we created some chances on the back of their possession.

“It was a disappointing goal, we don’t lose goals like that generally, a diagonal ball into the box and I think the goalkeeper should have taken a braver starting position.

“We should have defended it better and we have, we have had a lot of clean sheets and they are very disappointed with the goal we lost.

“I don’t think that’s the story of the game. After the sending off the team found it difficult to break through a deep block and we hadn’t prepared for a deep block, we’d prepared for Swansea who keep the ball and put men infront of the ball and try and play through your lines.

“The game changed and it felt as though we had a young team out there.

“There was a naivety of not knowing how to break through a deep block, yet we did create chances.

“Lenihan should have scored, like Buckley’s first half chance, he had an almost open goal that he should have put the ball in the net.

“It wasn’t to be. It felt a little bit like it wasn’t going to be our night. We needed to be more clinical when the chances came, we should have had a few goals.

“It became difficult against a deep block against a team not trying to score a goal, they were trying to keep a 1-0 lead. I don’t know how many efforts or crosses we had, but credit to them, they fought really hard and showed they were playing with intensity for their manager and team.”

Ryan Giles and Ryan Hedges were handed their debuts as Ben Brereton was only able to make the bench after his international commitments with Chile.

Wolves loanee Giles delivered 23 crosses from the left and set up chances for both Wharton and Lenihan late on, and Mowbray felt that was an avenue they could have explored more.

“We were playing against a team that weren’t trying to score a goal and breakaway, so we changed from a back five, pushed Lenihan high,” he added.

“That was the naivety of the team, we should have been getting the ball to Giles a lot more and Lenihan should have been arriving at the far post as a centre half.

“It was almost like a crossing and finishing session at the end. They were just a bit more naïve, young players making poor decisions of when to go through the middle and when to get it out wide or go through the middle.

“I say to them every week, they’re a brilliant bunch of lads, they run their socks off, they’re devastated in there, but their shirts are wringing with sweat, they’ve all worked really hard and try and get a result.

“We never managed it, credit Swansea for digging in deep but it’s not about the games we lose.

“We’ve got 16 games left and we have to win half of them and if we can then that will undoubtedly cement a play-off place and then hopefully we can win more than that and see how the rest do.

“It’s about the games we win, not the games we lose.”