OWEN Coyle was delighted to see his team play with pace and precision against Nottingham Forest after the disappointment of three days earlier.

Rovers were well below par in the 0-0 draw with Ipswich Town on Saturday as both sides struggled to find any kind of spark.

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But they found some against the Reds in the torrential East Lancashire rain on Tuesday night and it was the manner in which they went about their work, as well as two quality finishes from striker Sam Gallagher, that left manager Coyle satisfied with the evening’s work.

“We actually started the game on Saturday really well and got caught up a bit in the way the game was going,” he said.

“What I asked (against Forest) was that we stayed true to what we are about and that's passing and moving the ball.

“They are great finishes from young Sam, who is going to be a very good player, but they were team goals.

“The passing, the level of movement, the speed of the passing - it was great to see and that's what I try to encourage every day.”

Coyle maintains there is enough quality in the squad to lift Rovers away from a relegation zone they moved out of for only the second time this season with three points against Philippe Montanier’s side.

But he craves consistency to make up for a woeful start to the season.

He added: “We know we've got the makings of a decent team.

“We knew it was such a big, big job coming in when the team each year had been regressing in terms of the league positions.

“We'd sold two of the best centre-backs in the Championship for £10million, and then we had to go and bring one or two in, which we did.

“We don't find ourselves where we are because of how we've been playing last six or seven games.

“We took one point from five games with all the turmoil at the start, I think that's 10 points from the last five or six games.

“We're a decent team in the Championship so what we've got to do is show that level of consistency, which we have been doing.

“That will see us moving up the league where we all feel we should be and that will, hopefully, gives us that platform to have a real go at trying to get the club back to where we should be.

“We've got to walk before we can run and that's picking up points like we did tonight and giving the level of performance that we've seen.”

Forest have still yet to win away from the City Ground this season and boss Montanier admitted they made life difficult for themselves with a poor first 45 minutes,

"We started very badly in the first half,” he said. “For me we lost the game in the first half. I don't know why that's happened.

"We prepared very well and after Birmingham we had confidence. But it's a handicap for us if you play only 45 minutes of the 90.

"The second half was better and we are closer to a goal at the end, but it's not sufficient to play only one half."