FORMER Blackburn Rovers defender Gary Croft believes former team-mate Tony Mowbray will ‘bring order’ to Ewood Park after being appointed as head coach yesterday.

Croft, who spent three years at Rovers between 1996 and 1999, played alongside Mowbray during two years together at Ipswich Town.

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And the 43-year-old, who moved to Portman Road from Ewood Park, admits he always thought that Mowbray would have a career in management after hanging up his boots in 2001 following a playing career that spanned more than 650 games with Middlesbrough and Celtic.

Mowbray takes over Rovers with 15 games of the Championship season remaining and the club battling to avoid the drop ahead of the crunch clash with Burton Albion.

The 53-year-old successfully kept Coventry City in League One having taken charge in a similar position in March 2015, with Rovers hoping he can repeat the trick so to avoid dropping in to League One.

And Croft told the Lancashire Telegraph: “He is very thorough, he loves his football and is someone that loves the game.

“He would sit down and talk football from 8am to 11pm and knows the game inside out.

“When he was a player at Ipswich he was someone who was very studious. He would always be watching George Burley closely and getting ideas on how to put sessions together.

“He’s had an amount of success during his career.

“He has been given a few difficult roles but I think he will bring order, he likes things being done properly and he will see that things are done right.

“The players will have to have the right attitude, he’s not necessarily a shouter and a bawler, but he will want 100 per cent from everyone he works with.”

Mowbray succeeds Owen Coyle who left his role on Tuesday after leading Rovers to just seven wins in his 31 league games in charge.

Mowbray will be tasked with keeping Rovers in the second tier in the remaining 15 games of the season having been out of work for just five months since leaving Coventry.

His other managerial roles have seen him take charge at Celtic, as well as Middlesbrough and West Brom, and Croft, who now runs an estate agent business in northern Lincolnshire, says he will relish the challenges the job will bring.

“I don’t think any challenge would faze him,” Croft, who played 52 times for Rovers before enjoying spells with the Tractor Boys and Cardiff added.

“I think he will relish that.

“That’s what he was like as a player.

“You only have to look at his face to see the bumps, bruises and scars, he was always prepared to put his head in where it hurts and he will roll his sleeves up.

“He’s at a big club with a proud history, albeit that is in a difficult position and had a fall from grace.”

Croft added: “He will look to get things in order, particularly the back four if that’s the way he wants to play with the players he has available.

“He would have no problem telling people what they were doing wrong but what he will do is give out good information, that’s what he did as a player, so I think he will be able to mix it up.

“In this situation, I think what they need is a bit of good man-management and leadership and I’m sure that’s what he’ll bring.”