Forshaw's calm in storm is just what Rovers need

With four games to go in this gloriously unforgiving Championship season, there's no escaping it now - every kick matters. Phone batteries everywhere are being tested by relentless score-checking and every table update raises an eyebrow. This is the point of the campaign where tension creeps in quietly and then flatly refuses to leave.

You can feel it in the stands, on the touchline, and in media areas up and down the country. Nobody's sleeping easily, least of all those with a vested interest in not joining Sheffield Wednesday in League One next season. Form-wise, things remain delicately poised.

Over the last eight league games, Oxford United have been among the division's pace-setters, West Brom have also kept their noses out front, while Rovers have quietly gathered 10 valuable points. Portsmouth's recent run hasn't exactly set the pulse racing, but their late winner at Middlesbrough served as a timely reminder that no lead is safe and no gap comfortable at this stage of the season. For Rovers, on the face of it, a draw at Stoke was a pretty creditable result.

Without their goalkeeper Balasz Toth making another wonder save, they'd have left with nothing. They took the lead through Adam Forshaw in the first half and held on until the break, despite them being more wide open at the back than in previous games. Once Stoke were level, it looked like a case of putting the point in the bag and heading home.