BLACKBURN Rovers boss Gary Bowyer struggled to hide his frustration after his side twice threw away a lead in drawing 2-2 at Birmingham City last night.

Rovers went in front in the eighth minute when Matt Kilgallon headed in a Craig Conway corner to register his first goal of the season.

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But they were unable to build on their early dominance and they paid the price for a slow start to the second half when Jonathan Grounds headed in a 64th-minute equaliser from a David Cotterill corner which left Simon Eastwood in no man’s land.

Rovers went back in front four minutes later, though, when top-scorer Jordan Rhodes punished a goalkeeping error from Darren Randolph to notch his 18th goal of the campaign.

Substitute Rudy Gestede and Conway then wasted golden opportunities in the 77th minute.

And they were made to pay less than 60 seconds later when a cross from the right found its way to Demarai Gray and he beat Eastwood, who Bowyer felt should have never have come for Birmingham’s first goal, with the aid of a deflection.

Both teams had chances to win it with the best falling to Rovers, who can no longer mathematically make the play-offs, after sub Tom Cairney played Ben Marshall clean through on goal.

“We can’t be telling them, ‘well done’ for a point away from home, although it does extend the unbeaten away record to eight games,” said Bowyer.

“I should be talking about how professional and ruthless we were in both boxes and how we’ve won the game convincingly.

“I think Gary Rowett has done a terrific job here and when you come to St Andrew’s you know they aren't going to stop.

“We had to go out in the second half in the way we started the first half but I don’t think we quite did that.

"When they equalised you saw us go again and that is what we've got to get away from. They've got to really learn to drive it home.

“The games that we've let slip this season have been costly to us in terms of what we have wanted to do.

“We have to start now to make sure that it doesn’t repeat itself in the next four games as we’ve got to come out of the traps next season ever so fast.

“Some of the football tonight was great, the chances we created, the possession we had, but we should be talking about winning the game, that is the frustration that I feel.

“If you look at the results in the top six tonight you see why they are in the top six – away wins, clean sheets. That’s what we’ve got to be really gearing towards.”