AS soon as Gary Bowyer breezed into the media centre at Brockhall yesterday lunchtime it was clear the Blackburn Rovers boss had put what happened on Tuesday night firmly behind him.

Not that his players got off scot free for their performance in the loss to Scunthorpe United.

After being given a dressing room dressing down they were informed that their day off had been cancelled.

But after going through the 1-0 defeat on Wednesday morning, attention quickly shifted to tomorrow’s derby clash at troubled Lancashire rivals Blackpool.

Pool still remain in a state of disarray after a shambolic summer which at one stage left new manager Jose Riga with just eight players to call on.

Bowyer has sympathy for Riga, whose side also crashed out of the Capital One Cup in midweek to lower-division opposition having lost their Championship opener at Nottingham Forest.

But the belief that the Belgian does not have talented players to call on cuts little ice with his counterpart.

Upbeat Bowyer said: “I went and watched Blackpool and Stuart Pearce’s comments after the game that they were better than Forest in the second half I would agree with.

“I think there’s a little bit of kidology if you like about how small a squad they have.

“If you look at their squad I think he (Riga) has now signed 15 players on top of the eight players that he already had – and I know he keeps asking for more, which we all do.

“I can understand him asking for more time. We talk about this club needing two more transfer windows – a-year-and-a-half or two years – to build a team, but this poor bloke has had to do it in six weeks, or he may say six days.

“But we’re not going to be kidded by that. They are a decent team, the players he has already assembled there are good players – some with Championship experience – and we know we’re going to be in for a tough game because it’s their first home game as well.

“We’ve done our homework on every signing that they have made but it’s about what we do, how we play, how we press, and how we defend and attack. It’s all about us.”

Bowyer made 10 changes for the first-round clash with Scunthorpe.

However the vast majority of the players he called into his starting line-up will not retain their places for tomorrow’s trip to Bloomfield Road, where Rovers will be cheered on by 2,300 supporters after the club sold out its ticket allocation.

But Bowyer has made it clear that those who disappointed on Tuesday still have important roles to play.

He said: “If you look at those players throughout last year they’ve got this club back to where we are at this present stage.

“Everybody has a bad day at work and it was a bad day at work. It’s how you respond and that’s the challenge now.”

And Bowyer, who the hailed the backing his side will receive from the stands tomorrow as ‘fantastic’, added: “Tuesday has gone.

“We dealt with Tuesday on Tuesday night, the day off got cancelled, we were all in on Wednesday, and that was the end of it. The disappointment has gone.

“Fortunately for us we’re positive people and we’re honest people and we took our medicine on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

“Now we’re really excited and looking forward to a local derby.”

Bowyer will once again be without striker Chris Brown and left back Tommy Spurr for Rovers’ first away match of the campaign.

Centre back Matt Kilgallon has not trained since coming off in the season opener against Cardiff with a back injury although he could come into contention if he makes his return to training today.

Bowyer is looking to bring in defensive cover after being given the green light by owners Venky’s to delve back into the loan market.

But, with Michael Keane’s immediate future at Manchester United still unclear, he insists he will wait to get the right man.

Bowyer said: “The phones are glued to our ears at the moment, we’re constantly making calls.

“But you listen to managers in the Premiership who have got a hell of a lot more funds than we have and they’re struggling to bring in players.

“So it’s very difficult and we’re not hiding from that. “But we’ve got to try and bring the right person in – I’m not just going to bring somebody in just to be a number because that’s a waste of a loan.”