Tony Mowbray is keen to make the most of Rovers’ increased preparation time during their remaining matches this season.

Rovers do not face any midweek fixtures in each of the next three weeks, with Saturday fixtures against Blackpool, Gillingham and Doncaster scheduled before the Easter programme.

Their lack of action on each of the three international weekends so far this season, as well as reaching the FA Cup third round, means Rovers have been playing catch-up on their rivals in recent months.

But a busy schedule of matches so far this calendar year has seen no team in the league play more than Mowbray’s men going into the final two months of the campaign.

And the Rovers boss is hoping that can prove to be an advantage.

“We go through a period of Saturday, Saturday, Saturday games which is important in that the preparation we can make sure that every game is a big event as it has to be,” Mowbray explained.

“We can’t affect anything that Shrewsbury Town or Wigan Athletic now.

“We need to stay focused, try and pick the teams that we feel can get the three points and keep pushing forward.

“We’re watching with great excitement their cup exploits.

“Ultimately for us this season we have one target and that’s to try and get as many points as we can and get out of this division.”

While Mowbray’s attention to detail has been clear since joining the club over 12 months ago, he believes the players in the dressing room too deserve credit for the run of just one defeat in 25 league matches since October.

The boss added: “I think there’s a focus to make sure the preparation is right and that on matchday they get their adrenaline levels not overflowing the cup but on the brim of the cup and ready to go and compete and leave nothing on the pitch.

“If someone is going to beat us then so be it and there may well be days like that between now and the end of the season but any teams that does will have to be very good on the day and work extremely hard to work harder than us.

“The group understand that and they are driving it.

“As I’ve said the senior players, Charlie (Mulgrew), Danny, Elliott Bennett, Craig Conway, these are the players that are internally driving the team on the football pitch.

“I am just having to guide them and point them in the right direction.”