ROVERS head coach Tony Mowbray felt there was a nervousness to his side as they conceded inside the opening 15 minutes for a third consecutive home game against Bristol City.

Tammy Abraham’s 14th minute goal gave the Robins the lead at Ewood Park as Rovers once again started slowly.

Not since October have Rovers scored in the first-half to take the lead in a game at Ewood Park, and the 3-2 win over Brentford in November was the last time they led at the break on their home turf.

Having conceded twice in the opening 10 minutes against Barnsley in their last Ewood outing, Rovers were hoping for a brighter start against Bristol City.

But Mowbray said: “It was similar to Barnsley to be honest, we didn’t play particularly well, there was a bit of nervousness about the team.

“They’re treading on egg shells, we need to start with intensity, go for the throat from the off, play forward and get the crowd with you from the off.

“But that’s the last couple of games where they haven’t done that, so that is a disappointment.

“We have to play without fear or concern really at home and we’ve one more opportunity this season against Villa.

“So let’s hope we can pick up three points in that and remain unbeaten until the end of the season.”

So concerned by their first half display Mowbray made a double change bringing on Lucas Joao and Craig Conway for Ryan Nyambe and Liam Feeney. And Mowbray felt the changes helped his side claw back the deficit.

When asked about the first-half display, Mowbray added: “Nobody was (happy).

“We started a bit tepid, as we did the last game against Barnsley where we were 2-0 down after 10 minutes.

“You can’t start football matches like that – we have to start on the front foot.

“We had talked about that, yet their quality pushed us back.

“I think we have played really well in some matches over the last six weeks and we didn’t play well, but we didn’t lose, and there will hopefully be days coming up where we play really well and get what we deserve and that’s three points.”