Coming into this highly anticipated Lancashire derby, there was talk from both sides about picking up a win to propel themselves back into the battle for the play-off places and potential promotion in the coming months.

If this showing is anything to go by however, it is hard to see either side being anywhere other than this division again this time next year.

An early strike each apart, both sides seemed to really struggle to show the sort of attacking flare needed to create the requisite chances needed to win games on the sort of basis needed to make the step up to the top six, and even when they did get those opportunities, a finishing touch was also largely lacking as the game went on.

Indeed, it is now no win in six in all competitions for both these sides, although both have at least put an end to the three-game losing runs hanging over them heading into this one.

Just as they did in the reverse fixture earlier this season, Blackburn raced into the lead inside two minutes at Ewood Park. Stewart Downing pounced on a loose pass out from the back by North End skipper Tom Clarke, before setting Adam Armstrong away down the left, with the attacker cutting into the area, playing a tight, quick one-two with Lewis Holtby, before stroking an effort past Declan Rudd from close range.

Armstrong, who has been the man to largely step up in an attacking sense for Rovers could have had his and his side's second by the quarter-hour, narrowly curling a first-time effort wide after Downing's free-kick dropped to him inside the North End area.

Preston had had to wait until after half time to get back into the game the last time these met, but there would be no such delay this around, and they were level just moments after Armstrong's missed opportunity, in a not dissimilar passage of play to the one Rovers had just failed to capitalise on, with Josh Harrop emphatically thumping a first time effort into the roof of Christian Walton's net after former Blackburn man Paul Gallagher's own free-kick landed at his feet on the edge of the area.

After that, chances would become something of a rarity for the rest of the opening 45, with the exception of one curling effort from the edge of the Preston area, which had been heading for the top corner but for the outstretched hand of the diving Rudd.

But with an early injury that had seen Corry Evans stretched off early in his 200th Blackburn appearance with a blow to the head prompting seven minutes of added on at the end of the first half, Rovers would miss not one but two decent chances to restore their advantage in that extended period of stoppage time.

This time, Holtby flashed an effort from distance over the bar after being teed from a corner kick routine, before Adam Armstrong dragged an effort across the face of goal and wide from a tight angle while through on goal after a quick Blackburn free-kick, with the visitors far from happy with the speed with which the set-piece had been taken.

If the first half had been short on chances, then the second half was lacking even more in that sense.

After Sean Maguire and Amari'i Bell both sent efforts some way off-target in the first five minutes of the half, the match quickly descended into one dominated by niggling fouls and gamesmanship that prevented any real momentum from developing in the game, something not helped by the unnecessarily whistle-happy nature of referee James Linington.

Despite that, Rovers did have chances to win it late on, as Armstrong's cross beat everybody in the area before cannoning away of the bottom of the post, while Rudd produced another brilliant save to deny Tosin Adarabioyo from a corner deep into second-half stoppage time, with both sides forced to settle for a point that may ultimately be seen as a fair result.