TONY Mowbray insists there is a long way to go in the League One promotion race and won’t panic regardless of Rovers’ result at Portsmouth tonight.

Rovers are yet to go three games without a win in the league this season, a run they will put to the test at Fratton Park.

Mowbray won’t be ‘making a mountain out of a molehill’ were that record to end, knowing plenty of twists and turns lie ahead in the promotion race.

And the Ewood chief said the expectation on his players won’t affect them.

He said: “I like to be single-minded in the way that I work.

“Chelsea, champions of the Premier League, have lost two games and it’s a crisis, they could win the next seven, and we could win the next seven.

“We just have to work hard every game and trust the players to get the job done, the morale of the group to dig in so when we do drop points we have the resolve to see the next game as a great opportunity.

“We won six on the bounce a month or two ago, we can do that again, if we lose a few then we shouldn’t worry about the defeats.

“We have to focus on every game to try and get three points, if we don’t then we refocus on the next one.

“If you’re good enough then you will win enough football matches and that’s what we’re trying to do, not bury our heads if we lose or draw a game, not worry about it, try and move on and try and win.”

Rovers battled back from 2-0 down to earn a point against Oldham Athletic and moved a point closer to the automatic spots with Shrewsbury losing to Plymouth, but that didn’t stop there being a sense of disappointment in the dressing room.

Mowbray said: “They were really annoyed, a lot of unhappiness that they didn’t win that football match even from the position we were in at half-time. My job is to not to become too intense, because it can hinder sometimes, it can inhibit footballers.

“You have to get the balance right from them knowing that they have to perform but not constantly making the same message every three days because eventually it becomes too diluted.

“I think we’re at the stage where they know the importance, we’re right there with the two teams above us, if we’d have got the three points the swing would have been huge. We have to apply pressure and we are only going to do that by winning as many games as we can.”

Of the Pompey trip Mowbray added: “It’s a difficult place to play, the crowd are right on top of you.

“You need the right characters and personalities to go there, the good thing is that we don’t play on Saturday which gives us an extra two days rest afterwards.”

 Hopefully we’ll pick a team that is as competitive as we have been and see what we can get out of it.”