Blackburn Boss Bowyer believed his side deserved a point from derby day

Jordan Rhodes fortuitously rescued a point, as Michael’s Duff’s clearance deflected in off his shin, and Bowyer praised his charges.

He said: “When we were 1-0 down with 10 minutes to go and with the average age of our team being 22, then you do wonder and question how they were going to react, but in this environment we’ve got nothing but praise for them because they came back with a fantastic attitude and spirit.

“In my opinion they thoroughly deserved the equaliser.

“This is a young team that started the game. You have to remember what sort of occasion it was.

“They weathered the storm from Burnley in the first half and we just said to them ‘grow in the game now’ and I felt they did. I thought they did ever so well.”

The draw meant Rovers extended their unbeaten run against the Clarets to 11 games, and Bowyer, in his first East Lancashire derby, added: “For the supporters it’s massive.

“We spoke about sending our supporters home happy in the pre-match and with Jordan’s goal we’ve managed to do that.

“I have to say both sets of supporters have done tremendous by behaving, and that’s important as well.”

Rhodes missed Scotland’s win in Macedonia on Tuesday, returning from international duty with a broken hand, but there was little chance of him missing the derby: “As soon as he came back from Scotland he got checked out by our medical team who did a great job and he was never in danger of missing this game.

“When we’ve got someone like Jordan who scores goals there’s always a confidence and a belief in the team that you can get back into it, no matter what happends.”

Bowyer accepted the referee was right to send off substitute Lee Williamson, who hauled back Danny Ings to prevent him going clear on goal in injury time.

He said:“It’s a professional foul, the referee was left with no option.

“We have no qualms about the decision.

“It all happened too quickly. I didn’t know if Todd Kane was getting back.

“I was never going to question the decision once you realise he is the last man.

“Until we’re in that position we don’t know what we’d do ourselves.”

Bowyer also hailed the contribution of wide man Josh King.

The Blackburn manager added: “He’s a threat. His pace is a threat. We’re working with him to provide more end product and I thought he put in a great ball in the first half that Jordan narrowly missed.

“He’s got the potential to be as good as he wants to be in terms of how hard he wants to work to improve his game and how he wants to live his life off the pitch.

“We’re here to support him but ultimately it’s down to him as well.”