Blackburn keeper Balazs Toth produced an inspired performance to help Rovers ride their luck to a 1-0 win at Bristol City to climb into the Championship play-off places.

Toth was the hero with a string of fine saves as City dominated the opening 30 minutes but the visitors took the lead before the break with their only shot of the half when Oladapo Afolayan wrong-footed home keeper Sam Tickle from just outside the box.

Dom Ballard, George Tanner, Yu Hirakawa and Elijah Adebayo were ultimately all thwarted by the Hungarian keeper as the Robins alternated between victory and defeat for a ninth straight league game at Ashton Gate.

It was a fourth defeat without scoring at home in all competitions this season for Michael Skubala's men while Rovers won away in the league for the first time since Tony Mowbray's return.

Skubala made five changes to the City side which drew with Charlton on Saturday but after a low-key start Ballard should have broken the deadlock. He latched on to George Tanner's through ball and brilliantly dinked the ball over Hayden Carter in the box, only for his low effort to be blocked by Toth, who produced an even better save three minutes later to tip Ballard's flashing header from Sam Greenwood's cross over the bar.

The best of his seven saves on the night saw Toth superbly tip a far-post header back across goal from Tanner past the upright as the pressure intensified, with City having nine attempts on goal and winning six corners in the opening half hour.

The visitors grew in stature, however, and after winning a series of corners, three of which were wasted by Todd Cantwell, Rovers broke the deadlock with their first shot of the match on 38 minutes when Afolayan spun outside the box and flashed a 20-yard shot to the right of the wrong-footed Tickle, who was seemingly expecting it to go the other way.

Hirakawa was introduced by the hosts at the break before Scott Twine saw a 25-yard free-kick plucked out of the air by the diving Toth, who also flew off his line to deny Hirakawa's low effort with his legs on 55 minutes.

Rovers had just their second shot of the match on 71 minutes when Ryan Alebiosu cut in from the right but blazed over, but City thought they had levelled 15 minutes from time when substitute Tomi Horvat turned a low cross from Jed Wallace in off the underside of the bar, only for the flag to go up for what looked a very marginal offside.

City kept coming and Horvat's 20-yard curler was turned away by Toth while Adebayo saw a deflected effort from an angle turned around the post by the Hungarian in stoppage time.

Adebayo headed City's 20th and final attempt on goal of the evening over the bar in the dying seconds.

Bristol City head coach Michael Skubala told BBC Radio Bristol: "It's really frustrating from our point of view - we're a little bit sore.

"Tonight we created more than enough, first 25 or 30 minutes we were on top of the game, had some big chances, corners and set-pieces were working well and we didn't put it away.

"All of a sudden we get caught out of nothing and it felt soft, if I'm honest, it felt too easy the way it went in. They had six or seven touches in our box at most, it felt like we had loads.

"The game is about both boxes, it's not about what we do in the middle of the pitch. It's a really hard result to take.

"We stopped doing what we were doing well after 25-30 minutes."

On Toth: "I think he was magnificent. We had to stay strong because we were on top but we lost a bit of our rhythm and when you give a team something to hold on to it's always going to be a difficult second half.

"Very frustrating, it felt like we were on top. They hit us with a sucker punch and you think 'how are we 1-0 down in this game?' In reality we haven't been good enough in both boxes."

Rovers head coach Tony Mowbray told BBC Radio Lancashire: "It's a fantastic result for us. It was a different type of performance required to get that result.

"Credit to (City) for nullifying us on the ball. They'll feel pretty hard done by but there's more than one way to skin a cat, is an old saying. You have to at times be resilient, put your body on the line, have a keeper who can make the saves he's made tonight.

"It's not necessarily how we like to do it but you have to find a way to win matches.

"I never play five at the back but I thought the extra defender was a benefit to us."

On Toth's performance: "They were amazing saves, I was behind two of them. Literally his fingertips diverted it a few inches past the post a couple of times. Brilliant performance from the goalie but you can look at them all across the back line.

"I'm not delighted with the performance because I want more of the ball, I want to be a better team, score more goals, have more goal threat, but we managed to get the points.

"Backs to the wall, got the job done."