If Blackburn Rovers are - as they so badly want - to break in the Championship's top six this season, you feel they are going to have be more ruthless, and assertive, than this going forward.

Nevertheless, when you have a striker like Adam Armstrong in your side, you are always going to have a chance of keeping pace with the top spots, and the man himself proved exactly that in the nick of time for Rovers here, popping up in second half stoppage time to dramatically claim all three points with his 50th goal for the club.

For their part, Millwall too will have aspirations of a play-off place this season, but will know that their hosts, they must start taking more of the multitude of chances they are taking, with the fact they do not have of forward of Armstrong's calibre having seemingly contributed to their downfall here.

It was a bright start from the hosts, with Armstrong fashioning the first chance of the game inside the first couple of minutes, driving into the Millwall area down the left, before cutting inside and seeing his shot blocked.

Seconds later, Harvey Elliott saw a shot from the edge of the area parried by Bartosz Bialkowski, with Ben Brereton flagged offside as he looked to follow up on the rebound.

Millwall however, responded well to that early challenge, and just as they did at the weekend, Rovers quickly found themselves under pressure from the high press.

That is something that almost saw the visitors gifted the lead inside ten minutes, when Blackburn 'keeper Thomas Kaminski - as he so often does - coming out of his area to play the ball out, only to give it straight to Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, but with those on the touchline urging him to shot, the striker somewhat inexplicably elected not to do so, although the fact that much unlike Armstrong - the 28-year-old has yet to score this season - may have left him lacking the confidence required to do so.

But despite failing to take that chance, Millwall would continue to put the pressure on, with Shaun Williams twice flashing efforts from the edge of the area narrowly off target inside the opening 20 minutes.

Rovers however, would hit back to take the lead in emphatic style midway through the first half, as Harvey Elliott showed just why Tony Mowbray has been telling him to shoot more often. Picking up the ball on halfway, the Liverpool loanee drove down the right of the Millwall, and after playing a one-two with Armstrong on the edge of the area, curled a stunning effort across the face of goal and into the top corner.

Despite that setback, Millwall continued to come forward, and should have been level on the half-hour mark, as Daniel Ayala could only half clear Mahlon Romeo's cross into the path of Jed Wallace, whose effort from inside the area was someone deflected away with the visitors frantically appealing for a penalty to no avail.

Moments later however, the visitors would get the leveller that their first half efforts merited, as Jed Wallace somehow managed to find Scott Malone free inside the Blackburn area, with the wing back duly smashing his effort past Kaminski to level at the scores.

After that, both sides would enjoy sustained periods of pressure, although neither was able to claim the lead before the break, with a couple of efforts off target from Brereton the action most worthy of note as Rovers ended the half with one of their better spells of the game up to that point.

Having ended the first half strongly, Rovers would start the second in a similar manner. Breaking down the right, Ryan Nyambe's cross into the area found Brereton, who nodded down for Armstrong, but the striker could only fire well over as tried to bring the ball under control.

Up the other end, Bodvarsson did elect to shot this time, but could only fire at the legs of Kaminski from a tight angle after bringing the ball down inside the area.

In what is becoming a frustratingly regular occurrence for the hosts this season, Rovers found themselves facing yet another injury concern, as Brereton had to be helped off the pitch following a poor challenge from Shaun Hutchinson that brought an end to the Blackburn man's night.

Mowbray's side then nearly came close to the perfect response to that, Holtby seeing an effort from distance deflected behind from a corner that was only half cleared to Elliott, whose long range effort ended up some way off target.

In a game that was becoming increasingly open, both sides would have chances to take the lead as the match passed the hour mark.

Nyambe did brilliantly for Rovers to single-handedly shut down a Millwall counter-attack at the expense of a corner that came to nothing, before Dolan curled narrowly over from the edge of the area after being teed up by Armstrong, who was unable to get a shot through a forest of Millwall legs after a knockdown from a Sam Gallagher knockdown.

Then, almost inevitably for the nature of the game, it was Millwall who would have the next opportunity, Murray Wallace's effort deflecting behind, with Rovers then having to deal with two set pieces to get the ball to safety after Kaminski could only turn a header from Wallace at the back post behind from the first corner.

As the game went on to, both sides continued to go in search of the winner that would keep them within range of the playoff places, although the quality that had got both on the scoresheet in the first half was for a time, lacking.

That was until the game entered four minutes of stoppage time, when substitute Stewart Downing saw a shot from the edge of the area blocked into the path of that man Armstrong, who via a deflection fired into the back of Bialkowski's net to restore Rovers' lead at the death, bringing up his half-century of goals for the club in the process.

With plenty of stoppage time remaining, Millwall would through everything at their hosts, but were ultimately unable to find the equaliser they may feel they deserved, and despite frantic claims for a penalty for handball inside a packed area at the death, Gary Rowett's side saw their run of five straight draws come to an end, but not in the way they would have wanted.

Rovers meanwhile were free to breath a sigh of relief, and once again thank their lucky stars for the killer instinct of Armstrong, as they continue to look up towards those top-six.