ROVERS were booed off for the second home match in succession after they threw away a half-time lead in losing to an in-form and superior Norwich team at Ewood Park last night.

Alex Baptiste went from hero to zero as he headed Gary Bowyer’s side in front in the 22nd minute only to gift substitute Cameron Jerome a 65th-minute equaliser.

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That was the way it stayed until the 84th minute when Bradley Johnson rifled in what proved to be the winner after Matt Kilgallon was unable to clear his lines.

Rovers’ first home defeat in six games means they are now closer to the bottom three than they are to the play-offs.

On a poor pitch, not conducive to good football, the contest took its time to get going.

Jordan Rhodes shot high and wide before he played in Tom Cairney to swing over a cross that Rudy Gestede headed over on the stretch.

But the first chance of a scrappy but competitive opening period fell to the Canaries and their former Rovers defender.

Not for the last time in the half Johnson played a diagonal ball over the top to Martin Olsson.

With Cairney ball watching, the left-back, lining up against his identical twin brother Markus Olsson for the first time in his career, had time to take a touch.

But his control let him down and the ball drifted harmlessly out of play.

It proved a pivotal moment as within two minutes Rovers went in front against the run of play.

Cairney showed quick feet in the middle of the pitch before switching the ball out wide to Craig Conway.

The winger was brought down by Steven Whittaker and from Cairney’s resulting free kick Baptiste sent a bullet of a header back across John Ruddy and into the net.

But Rovers should have been pegged back four minutes later.

This time it was Wes Hoolahan who played the ball toward the marauding Martin Olsson whose header back across the box presented a gilt-edged opportunity for Lewis Grabban to equalise.

But the two-goal hero of Norwich’s 3-1 win over Rovers at Carrow Road in August missed his kick.

The Canaries dominated possession before the break yet it was only toward the end of the half that they began to exert serious pressure with Whittaker and Grabban firing over and Baptiste and Grant Hanley forced into vital blocks.

With Rovers pegged back deep into their own half boss Bowyer replaced Rhodes with the pace of Josh King at the interval.

But King, who had spent half-time warming up on the pitch, lasted just four minutes before he limped off with a hamstring. 

He was replaced by the fit-again Ben Marshall yet it a Norwich substitute who brought his team level.

Rovers had received a warning moments earlier when Johnson headed a Hoolahan corner into the arms of Jason Steele.

But there was nothing Steele could do to prevent Jerome from firing through his legs from close range after Baptiste had failed to head clear Hoolahan’s chipped cross to the back post.

It was the Canaries top-scorer’s 17th goal of the season and it ended Rovers’ hopes of keeping their first clean sheet of the year and their first in 12 matches.

Baptiste almost immediately made amends when he fizzed over a cross that Johnson would have turned into his own net had it not been for a sharp stop from Ruddy.

Norwich, chasing a fifth straight win and their seventh in nine games under new manager Alex Neil, then went close themselves as a Jonathan Howson daisy cutter flew just past the post.

Howson later half-volleyed straight down Steele’s throat from a Whittaker cross before Gestede headed into Ruddy’s arms from a Cairney free kick.

But there was to be another goal as Johnson, who put the Canaries in front on in the reverse clash between the teams, sent an unstoppable 18-yard drive into the top corner after Kilgallon failed to cut out Whittaker’s run across the area.

Steele then superbly saved from Jerome yet it was Rovers who did most of the pressing after falling behind and only another stop from Ruddy denied Gestede in injury-time.