Rovers would have made changes were their midweek trip to Swansea City were it 24 hours earlier, according to Tony Mowbray.

The manager stuck with the same side for the fourth game in a row, the first time he has done so during his time in charge.

Rovers had 24 hours to recover from Saturday’s win over Derby, with their midweek match on Wednesday rather than Tuesday, but with a quicker turnaround now before Saturday’s game against Bristol City, Mowbray says changes were always likely to be made at Ashton Gate.

There will need to be one enforced alteration, following Bradley Dack’s red card in the 1-1 draw at the Liberty Stadium that will rule him out of the weekend.

On going unchanged again, Mowbray said: “That was my dilemma. If it had been a Tuesday night game then I think the team would have looked a lot different.

“But the extra day allowed them to recover. They should be able to recover from Saturday to Wednesday.

“The workload you’re asking them to do is huge and it would have been different if it were a Tuesday. It’s very difficult to keep asking Danny Graham and Stewart Downing, at 34 and 35, to keep churning out 90 minutes and some of the other lads who haven’t had a lot of football.

“Joe Rothwell hasn’t played a lot of football and he’s played five games on the bounce now. They’re feeling it.

“Corry Evans has historically found it difficult to play three games in a week for us so we’ll go in to Saturday, look at the team, another tough away game at Bristol City, but one we’ll look forward and be as positive and pick a team to give them problems.

“This is a long week for us, a lot of waiting around, a lot of travelling. It was six hours to get to the hotel, we were late getting to the game as well, so we’ll take that point and move on to Saturday at Bristol.”

Rovers took the lead when Danny Graham scored in the third minute, calmly slotting home an Adam Armstrong pass. But the lead didn’t last long, with Andre Ayew  equalising in the 11th minute.

Having seen his side lead at the Liberty last season, only to go on to lose, Mowbray says holding out for a point, having come under pressure at stages in the game, was a positive, despite being disappointed with not being able to make more of their numerical advantage before Dack joined Tom Carroll in being shown a red card.

“I think it’s a positive sign. This game last year we got infront and then the game ran away from us in the second half. That happened quite a lot last year,” Mowbray added.

“Bristol City last season, they equalised bang on half time and then the game ran away from us in the second half because the crowd gets involved.

“Teams will tight stadiums, when the fans feel right on top of you, they get wrapped up in the game and it’s difficult for the team to keep doing the right things.

“There were a few games that ran away from us last year.  This year, are we getting better? This is a sign of a game that could have possibly got away from us, but didn’t.

“Hopefully that’s a sign we’re improving. We’ve been on a decent run and there’s positive signs, let’s see how far we can take it. We have another tough away game on Saturday, but then two home games against Wigan and Birmingham, so an opportunity for us.

“Let’s keep going and see if we can keep going unbeaten.”

The early goal came from early pressing high up the pitch, with Evans winning the ball and within three passes the ball was in the back of the net.

However, when Swansea did break through the Rovers press they looked a threat, with Mowbray saying when to push high and when to drop off was a difficult conundrum for his side to strike.

He added: “We’d done the work on that. Particularly early on, we’ve had rewards in the past from scoring early.

“We have to understand, and that's the learning, of coming up against these good footballing sides is when to draw the line a bit deeper, draw the distance between the front and back a bit tighter.

“Because if the front is pressing, but the back is staying back, then there are gaps for the really good teams to play in to.

“We tried to deepen off a bit after that initial 20 minutes, but they’re a good team. They play every week against teams who try and stop them playing, but they are brave, keep doing what they are doing, even if they lose goals like they did.

“But you have to give them credit for keep doing what they believe in because they can push teams back with their possession.”