Darren Ferguson praised his centre-half pairing of Andy Butler and Mathieu Baudry after the draw at Mansfield Town.
The home side made Rovers work for the point, with a work-rate and physical approach that left Butler and Baudry bloodied and bruised afterwards.
Ferguson said: "My two centre-halves were outstanding, very good. We spoke about keeping a high line and winning the first ball, and those two were outstanding.
"We dealt with the physical side of the game very well, the effort and endeavour was fantastic.
"I'm never happy with a point, but I suppose with the way the game went it is not a bad result. We've just had two away games pretty much local derbies, and four points is not a bad return."
Ferguson felt Rovers could have nicked a win with the chances the created after a change in formation in response to the opening goal, but feels his side are still in a strong position.
He added: "I didn't think they caused us many problems, we just didn't get control of the game until they went ahead. When we did I thought we'd go on to win, and were unfortunate not to with Tommy Rowe's header against a post.
"The players know one or two didn't get to the standards they've set recently. But you get that, and you have to dig in - and we've done that and got a point. We're still seven points ahead of fourth, which is a good gap."