'Bristol City defeat not a disaster for Blackburn'

Six minutes into Blackburn's clash with Bristol City, you could be forgiven for thinking that Michael O'Neill was on the way to a dream start of three wins out of three and the road to recovery was well and truly on course.

Yuki Ohashi scored against the Robins for the fourth time in three games, smashing home a cross from the right from Ryoya Morishita, but that only served to spring City into life.

It is important to give great credit to Gerhard Struber and his team. They were quicker to the ball and better on the ball. They scored twice before the interval and on another night they could have had a penalty or even two.

Food for thought for O'Neill, who was clear in his first-half assessment.

"We didn't compete, first of all, I didn't think. We didn't get pressure on the ball high enough up the pitch. We didn't win enough second balls," he told me after the game.

O'Neill also used the word "flat" to describe his side in the first 45 minutes and he was spot on.

Hayden Carter will be disappointed with his clearance which led to an equaliser from Emil Riis and Sean McLoughlin didn't cover himself in glory for the second goal scored by Scott Twine.

Riis led the line really well. His movement in the channels was intelligent, his link-up play was impressive. Horvat and Twine in the 'two number tens' roles equally showing their qualities.

You could tell Rovers were off the pace when Sondre Tronstad made way at half-time. An injury picked up two games earlier at QPR was a contributing factor.

At 2-1, the chance was always there to get back in to the game and on another night they could actually have won the game.

Ohashi and Moussa Baradji, with one of the final kicks of the game, were denied by the impressive Radek Vitek in the City goal. Subs Dion De Neve and Andri Gudjohnsen really ought to have done better with chances that came their way.

O'Neill has been keen to stress that victories won't be euphoric and defeats won't be devastating.

Draws for Leicester and West Brom mean it wasn't a disaster in terms of the Championship table. Rovers have moved a point closer to the drop zone, but earlier in the evening it was looking like it could have been more.

Next up, a trip to Derby and a reunion with former boss John Eustace and potentially up to five Rovers old boys. The Rams have lost three of their past four league games but undoubtedly will be tough opposition.