Rovers' Academy put in their worst performance of the season as they went down 2-1 away at West Bromwich Albion.

Jason Banton's stunning strike had given Rovers the lead, but that was as good as it got as a poor display merited no rewards for only their second defeat of the campaign.

West Bromwich Albion dominated the first half with Rovers goalkeeper Josh Swann making four or five good saves to keep the home side at bay.

So it was somewhat of a surprise when Rovers took the lead on 36 minutes. Jason Banton cutting in from the left to smash an unstoppable 20-yard strike into the roof of the net, his tenth goal of the season.

The only other chance of note for Rovers in the first half came just before the break when Josh Morris broke upfield before pulling the ball back for striker Tom Hitchcock, but he failed to react quickly enough and the West Brom defence cleared up.

The second half continued with West Brom in the ascendency and they deservedly got back on level terms on 65 minutes.

Conceding possession cheaply resulted in the home side breaking away to score with ease.

Ten minutes later and the turnaround was complete when a catalogue of errors involving Grant Hanley, Tom Murray and Josh Swan lead to Rovers gifting Albion a straightforward winner.

"We got everything we deserved," said coach Gary Bowyer. "Absolutely nothing. Due to a totally poor performance, easily our worst of the season.

"We failed to compete with and without the ball and were rightly punished.

"It was a harsh lesson to our players about competing all the time.

"We are now looking forward to the reaction as up until this game the players have set themselves higher standards than they achieved at the weekend."

ROVERS: Swann, C. O'Connor (sub Lindsay 70 mins), Ajagbe, Knowles (sub Murray 68 mins), Hanley, A. O'Connor, Morrissey (sub Pearson 85 mins), Bowen, Hitchcock, Morris, Banton.

Subs not used: Urwin.