Blackburn Rovers play-off hopes suffered a fresh setback on Sunday afternoon, as they were beaten 3-0 by Derby County at Pride Park.

After Louie Sibley put the Rams ahead just before the 30-minute mark with a long range effort, goals from Chris Martin late in either half - the latter from the penalty spot - sealed all three points for the Rams.

Rovers frustrations were then topped off late in second-half stoppage time, when substitute John Buckley was sent off for a late challenge on Derby defender Curtis Davies.

One Blackburn player who may feel as this proved to be something of a missed opportunity from an individual perspective, is Ben Brereton.

Following some enterprising cameos from the bench in recent weeks, the 20-year-old attacker was handed the chance to prove himself from the start on Sunday, as he aims to prove he can be a useful for option for Rovers going forward in the coming years following the scrutiny his time at Ewood Park has come under so far.

That however, didn't really appear to happen on Sunday, with the former Nottingham Forest man seemingly struggling to make an impact against the Rams as Rovers slid to a damaging defeat in the race for the play-off spots.

But how did Brereton actually fare against Derby?

Here, we put the spotlight on the attacker's performance from Sunday, in order to find out.

With Brereton being withdrawn from the action with around 20 minutes of the game remaining, it could be argued that Rovers boss Tony Mowbray was not all that impressed by the attacker's performance against the Rams, and the stats do seem to suggest that it would be understandable if that were indeed the case.

None of the ten teammates who started alongside Brereton for Rovers at Pride Park touched the ball on fewer occasions than the 20 touches registered by the attacker, highlighting the struggle he endured to get into the game.

Indeed, even when he did manage to get himself involved, it seems Brereton found it difficult to make much of an impact for the visitors.

The attacker's much-discussed lack of goals continued on Sunday, and his confidence in that department will not have been helped by the fact he was only able to get one shot on target - which failed to really trouble Derby 'keeper Ben Hamer - while he may have been even more disappointed by a close-range effort from a corner which ballooned well wide with the scores still goalless.

Elsewhere, the fact that Brereton only won two aerial duels feels slightly disappointing given the physical presence he offers, making it harder for Rovers to exploit him as an attacking outlet with long balls forward.

Worryingly for Mowbray and co. it also seems as though Brereton was unable to really have any effect on the game in ways that may have seen him benefit his teammates either.

With Brereton failing to complete any successful dribbles - and indeed only attempting one at all - it is clear that the striker struggled to really take the game to Derby, or get his side into a position from which they could trouble Hamer and co. in the Derby backline.

In addition to that, with Brereton's record when it came to crosses on Sunday identical to that of dribbles, his supply for his teammates in dangerous positions was also frustratingly limited, again making it hard for Blackburn to really get into the game.

As a result, after signs of recent progression with some encouraging cameos from the bench in recent weeks, it seems as though this performance will have done Brereton's hopes of an extended run in the side more harm than good, given it is hard to see Mowbray being all that confident about looking to the attacker again after this sort of return, particularly with the margin for error in the battle for a play-off place rapidly decreasing.