A quickfire double from Rovers ensured a fifth win of the season as they held on to a two goal advantage to see off Reading at Ewood Park.

Sam Gallagher and the excellent Tyrhys Dolan were both on target within the space of three minutes just after the hour as Rovers got back to winning ways.

Concerns for Tony Mowbray will be injuries in defence to Ryan Nyambe and Daniel Ayala, but a fifth win and third clean sheet of the campaign will help lift the mood after four games without a win.

The Ewood form has remained strong, with only one defeat in 10, with Rovers this time able to make their advantage pay.

Rovers reverted to a back four, recalling the quartet of players who had been left out at QPR, as Lewis Travis was passed fit but Harry Pickering missed out through injury.

Reading went without a natural centre forward to start, swarming the midfield and looking to break forward.

Their early forays forced Darragh Lenihan and Ryan Nyambe into good blocks to deny John Swift and Josh Laurent, while Thomas Kaminski was able to watch a Femi Azeez shot well over the bar.

Lenihan then threw himself in the way of an Ovie Ejaria shot as Rovers’ start to the game was summed up by a Daniel Ayala backpass that left Thomas Kaminski with no other option but to kick it into touch.

Nyambe was coming under plenty of pressure from the link-up of Ejaria and full back Baba Rahman whose 18th minute break into the area saw him slice a shot wide of the target.

With Reading playing with a false nine, it felt as though Rovers were defending too deep, the gap between back and front too big which meant they were unable to press at the top end of the pitch.

The visitors then went close as Ejaria floated a cross to the far post in the 24th minute which was met by Andy Yiadom, who fortunately for Rovers, planted his header straight at Kaminski.

The opening half hour had belonged to the visitors before Rovers finally started to find some rhythm and went close to opening the scoring through Sam Gallagher.

Lenihan won the ball and fed Joe Rothwell who in turn played in the striker whose shot cannoned off the outside of the woodwork.

Rovers were beginning to spend more time in the Reading defensive third, but were struggling for ways through, Tyrhys Dolan looking their most threatening player on the right.

It was from there that Rovers worked the ball into Gallagher who rolled his defender well, but snatched at his shot from the right edge of the box which flew wide of the near post.

Moments before, both sides had been forced into changes, with Femi Azeez unable to continue after sustaining a hamstring injury, before a concern saw Daniel Ayala’s run of playing every minute came to an end, with Jan Paul van Hecke on in his place.

Gallagher continued to be in the thick of the action as the second half got under way. A well-worked corner routine saw Rothwell fire the ball in low to find the striker’s run, his shot on the turn, not lacking power, but too much height as Luke Southwood watched it over.

The striker did look to have the beating of the Reading defence, and the chances kept falling his way. A flighted van Hecke ball 10 minutes after the re-start put him in the clear, getting away from Moore, but from a tight angle, he opted to shoot with the outside of his right boot, ‘keeper Southwood saving with his chest.

Rovers were preparing a double change on the hour, only for Nyambe to go down injured. Ian Poveda was sent on, as John Buckley moved to right back, Tony Mowbray holding off his final change.

It had the desired effect, Rovers hitting the front in the 61st minute. Gallagher scored, tapping home after the ball came back off the post, but the build-up owed everything to a driving Rothwell run which deserved to be rewarded with his second goal in as many home matches. As it was, it was Gallagher who wheeled away as the scorer, his fifth of the season.

Three minutes later, they had a second. This one was all down to Dolan, collecting the ball on the left, darting inside before curling an unstoppable shot into the far corner.

For the fifth time in seven home matches, Rovers had a two-goal lead, the next stage was to try and see it through. By this point it was a make-shift defence, with only Lenihan of Rovers’ first choice backline on the pitch by this stage.

The easy thing would have been to find a third, Dolan creating a chance to do just that as he danced beyond Danny Drinkwater to tee up Poveda, but his shot was blocked.

There were still some nervy moments in defence for Rovers, subs van Hecke and Poveda booked, though good blocks from Travis and Buckley helped maintain the two goal advantage.

The pair almost combined to put the result behind doubt with five minutes to play, but somehow van Hecke failed to find the target. He started the move with a fine challenge on the edge of his own box, continued his run forward to get on the end of a Brereton knock-down from Poveda’s cross, but put it wide from three yards.

Rovers: Kaminski, Nyambe (Poveda, 61), Lenihan, Ayala (van Hecke, 38), Edun, Travis, Buckley, Rothwell (Johnson, 87), Dolan, Brereton, Gallagher

Subs: Pears, Clarkson, Butterworth, Khadra

Reading: Southwood, Yiadom, Moore, Dann, Rahman, Drinkwater, Laurent, Swift, Ejaria (Clarke, 84), Dele-Bashiru, Azeez (Puscas, 36)

Subs: Rafael, Holmes, Camara, Osorio, Ashcroft