IN the end, the victory was all that mattered, but it was the manner of it that gave hope it could kick-start a Rovers revival.

After a winless league run of five games Gary Bowyer spoke beforehand of the need to see bravery and character.

Well he certainly saw both in what was at times a captivating contest at a bitterly cold Ewood Park.

Bravery can be quantified by different means but excellent debutant Jay Spearing certainly showed it in the way he constantly threw his body in the line of the ball.

Ben Marshall, who opening the scoring with his first goal since November 1, showed it too in the way he never stopped trying to make things happen.

Bravery was also evident in the way that Jordan Rhodes refused to hide after missing an excellent chance to end his own drought in front of the posts.

Rovers made it hard for themselves when they allowed Ross McCormack to halve the deficit just five minutes after Rhodes had netted his first goal in seven matches.

They displayed character thereafter, though, to stand firm in the face of a sustained period of pressure from a Fulham side chasing their third straight Championship success.

Had the in-form Cottagers achieved that it would have hauled them above Rovers and left their opponents closer to the bottom three than to the top six.

This, then, was a vital three points.

There is no escaping the fact that Rovers’ season was in danger of drifting but their deserved win here means they will head to sixth-placed Watford on Saturday knowing victory would reduce the gap between the teams to five points.

And with three home games and a trip to a free-falling Cardiff City to follow the Vicarage Road encounter, who knows where they could get to?

That may be getting ahead of ourselves but this win was just what was needed going into a hectic and crucial February.

You know it has been a good day at the office when there are so many candidates for the man-of-the-match award.

Rhodes may have got it from the sponsors but there would have been no complaints had it gone to Spearing, Marshall or his strike-partner Chris Brown.

With top-scorer Rudy Gestede absent through injury, and his future still unclear ahead of tonight’s transfer deadline, Brown made the most of his opportunity.

He may lack Gestede’s goal threat but he got through a prodigious amount of work and gave the Fulham centre-backs a physical battle they will not forget in a hurry.

It was Brown who created the game’s opening goal in the 12th minute.

Moments after Jason Steele had made an important save from Jazz Richards, Brown flicked a throw-in from Jason Lowe toward Marshall who beat Nikolay Bodurov to the ball before surging into the box and coolly slotting it underneath the advancing Marcus Bettinelli.

It was his seventh of the season, and his first in 14 matches, and it came after Rovers boss Bowyer’s clever decision to move him from the right of midfield to the tip of a diamond.

Marshall ran Kit Symons’ side ragged for the reminder of the first half and it was from his pass that Craig Conway curled a delightful shot against the post.

The Cottagers, for whom Rovers old Ryan Tunnicliffe was anonymous, had chances of their own before the break but Cauley Woodrow, McCormack and Lasse Vigen Christensen failed to take them.

The recalled Rhodes was equally wasteful less than 60 seconds after the restart when he flicked a cross from Markus Olsson wide but when the same two players combined in the 61st minute he made no mistake.

Olsson was afforded too much time and Rhodes got away from his marker to direct a fine header into the net for his 10th of the campaign.

Any hopes of a comfortable end to the afternoon were soon dashed though.

After Woodrow had rattled the woodwork, the otherwise impressive Matt Kilgallon was unable to cut out a perfectly weighted Christensen cross that gave McCormack a back-post tap-in.

The £11m forward later had an effort ruled out for offside as Fulham threatened an equaliser but Rovers showed good game management to see out the match.

And the outcome would have been more emphatic had Rhodes managed to beat Bettinelli for the second time after the former Accrington Stanley goalkeeper parried a Conway pile-driver into his path.