Blackburn Rovers suffered a third straight defeat on Saturday afternoon, as they were beaten 2-1 in the third round of the FA Cup by Championship rivals Birmingham City at St Andrews'.

After Dan Crowley had put the hosts ahead inside five minutes, Blackburn would eventually equalise on the hour mark, with Adam Armstrong firing home from the penalty spot after substitute Ivan Sunjic was shown a straight red card just minutes after coming on for bringing down Sam Gallagher in the area.

But despite that man advantage, Rovers failed to take advantage of the majority of the chances they enjoyed, something they were made to pay for when another Birmingham substitute, Jeremie Bela, saw a cross squirm under goalkeeper Jayson Leutwiler in the final minute to secure a place in the fourth round for Pep Clotet's side.

One Blackburn player who would come under particular scrutiny post-match for the chances he missed at St Andrews' was Gallagher himself, with manager Tony Mowbray admitting the striker needs to start scoring goals sooner rather than later.

So how did Gallagher actually fare in terms of his all-round performance on Saturday?

Here, we put the spotlight on some of the statistics behind the striker's time on the pitch at St Andrews' in order to find out.

Given Gallagher would play the full 96 minutes - including stoppage time - on Saturday, along with Blackburn enjoying a string of chances across the match, it is perhaps no surprise that the striker was heavily involved in the game, although the lack of a direct end-product could understandably prompt some cause for concern amongst those of a Blackburn persuasion.

With Gallagher failing to get any of his three efforts on target, it does seem as the striker may well be struggling to find his range at the moment, something which worryingly for Rovers, is unlikely to help his confidence going forward either.

Indeed, with Gallagher also winning just 39% of the offensive duels he entered into, it could also be argued that the striker is currently finding life difficult when it comes to one on one situations with opposition defenders, which is not going to help his side when it comes to creating the opportunities they need to score those all-important goals.

But despite those concerns about the quality of his recent performance, it does seem hard to criticise Gallagher too harshly, due to the level his work rate appears to have reached on Saturday.

While he may have only won 39% of those defensive duels, the fact that he entered into 18 of them across the course of the match shows just how determined he was to make a difference for Rovers on Saturday, despite the frustration he will have felt at missing those chances.

Furthermore, with six touches inside the Birmingham box during the game, there can be no questioning Gallagher's desire to get into positions from which he can get those goals for Rovers, and you feel that if he continues to do that, one is likely to fall his way eventually.

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One point that seems to back that up, is the fact that it was Gallagher himself who drew the foul from Sunjic that won Rovers the penalty from which they equalised, highlighting the trouble he is capable of causing opposition defences, and you have to wonder whether that would have been the moment for him to net that confidence-boosting goal had he not been brought down by the Birmingham man before he had the chance to pull the trigger.

It is also worth noting that, with an expected goals tally of just 0.22, the opportunities afforded to Gallagher against his former club may not have been quite as easy to finish off as they may have seemed, which suggests that the 24-year-old may not need to feel as badly about his performance as may have been the case.

Consequentially, while the continuing wait for goals for Gallagher - who has just three in 26 appearances in all competitions this season - is understandably concerning, there does seem to be some room for optimism for the striker, and it is hard not to feel as though he does at least deserve some credit, for the amount of effort he is putting in while his frustrations in front of goal goes on.