The Rovers supporters were defiant at the final whistle, standing right behind their team in an acknowledgement they had given them everything.

Yet a fourth consecutive Burnley win at Ewood Park will have stung more than most given the Clarets secured the Championship title and celebrated long into the night.

One shot on target was all it took for the visitors, courtesy of substitute Manuel Benson, a moment of quality that Rovers couldn’t find in the final third.

Jon Dahl Tomasson spoke about the different journeys the two sides are on, and while there is no disputing that, there needn't be an inferiority complex for Rovers.

While no-one would have expected them to finish in the top six, a play-off challenge isn’t all that far-fetched with how the season has panned out, given with the current contenders and the points tally likely needed to do so.

Indeed, the opportunity for a top six finish isn't always planned or well thought, simply being be ready to take advantage can be enough.

In many ways it doesn’t feel as though Rovers are.

It is that shift in mentality that could well be the difference to elevate the club from (potentially) being the nearly men once again.

Rovers have the makings of a good squad, many players who are only going to improve, and maybe ambitions and expectations will be talked up when further reinforcements arrive in the summer.

It is that pivotal part that Rovers need to get right, and where the spotlight will fall once again should they miss out, having failed to give themselves the best possible opportunity to succeed.

It will not have been lost on Tomasson that as well as Benson and Jay Rodriguez being introduced from the bench that the Clarets’ January striking additions, Lyle Foster and Michael Obafemi, went unused. Scott Twine didn’t even make the squad.

All the while Rovers’ only fit and available striker is the talented, but unproven, teenager Harry Leonard who has had just 31 minutes of league football to his name, and made his debut only two weeks prior.

Tyrhys Dolan led the line with great intensity, and Charlie Taylor looked less than comfortable up against the relentless pressing of the forward, but Rovers couldn’t make the most of the territory that earned them.

Countless set pieces were earned, but lacking both the quality of delivery, and height in the middle, it is clear to see why they have the second worst goals record (seven) from set plays. In stark contrast, Millwall, a direct rival in the play-off race, have 23.

It is now just 47 goals in 44 league games and four blanks in a seven-game winless run as Rovers’ form has faltered at just the wrong time.

That comes amid a backdrop of performances that have deserved more, efforts going unrewarded, and a haul of just four points has shown the harsh realities of football.

Tomasson has largely steered away from getting involved in discussions over officiating, but broke that stance when criticising the failure to see the handball from Ashley Barnes in injury time.

Jack Cork’s lunging challenge on Dolan was punished by a yellow card where a red couldn’t have been argued against, in a derby where tactical battles met blood and thunder football.    

Rovers managed five attempts on target, but clear-cut chances were at a premium, and Dolan taking the ball off Dom Hyam’s boot when he was otherwise unmarked from a Joe Rankin-Costello second half cross summed up how they didn’t make the most of those opportunities.

Adam Wharton, in a performance that defied his tender years and the stage on which he played, stole the show as he sauntered beyond challenges.

He came in for some rough treatment, and the introduction of Cork before the hour was in a bid to contain his dominance.

Rovers had stifled Burnley who looked uncomfortable up against their intensity, but seized their chance through Benson’s 66th minute winner.  

Harry Pickering, booked moments before, wouldn’t have wanted a one-on-one situation so soon after, with the Clarets working the ball wide after Hayden Carter lost it on halfway.

Knowing what is coming and stopping it are two very different things as Benson showed when cutting inside to curl home the goal that would ultimately separate the sides.

How the game panned out from there on in showed why Burnley are where they are, managing the game with the conviction of a team who are riding high, with Rovers rarely looking like finding a way back, a phrase so often used about them this season.

It means a team with no win in seven since the international break may need to find two in as many games, with their fate no longer in their hands, to secure a top six finish.

There is enough encouragement from recent performances to suggest that isn’t beyond them, even if the flaws are becoming increasingly evident.

They would undoubtedly take two of the scrappy 1-0 wins from earlier in the season.