Tony Mowbray is not concerned by the strength of his Rovers squad, despite a fourth consecutive defeat.

Rovers will be without centre back Darragh Lenihan for at least another month with a knee injury, while defender Derrick Williams is now suspended for the next two games.

It leaves Rovers with no cover in central defence, after Mowbray allowed Paul Downing to leave on loan in January.

The Rovers boss has just 18 senior players to choose from, with Harry Chapman and Jacob Davenport working their way to full fitness, but Mowbray stressed that he will soon turn to the talented crop of Under-23 players to plug any gaps.

Rovers are 14th in the Championship with 13 games to go, 10 points off the top six ahead of Saturday’s trip to Birmingham.

Mowbray said: “In my mind we have some very talented young players behind the first team who moving forward, if we find ourselves with not a lot to play with however many games to go, we will see some new names on our teamsheet.

“I’m looking forward to blooding some of them and giving some of them an opportunity.

“I think we have some really good players.

“I don’t worry about the squad. I think it’s fine.”

The 1-0 defeat to Middlesbrough was Rovers’ fourth in a row in February and they sign off the month with this weekend’s trip to St Andrew’s.

It is also nine defeats in 16 league games, and back-to-back home losses for Tony Mowbray’s men who enjoyed a fine January, which raised expectations that a push for the top six could be on the cards.

That has been tempered by a poor run in February which has seen them lose to Brentford, Bristol City, Reading and Middlesbrough.

Although he admitted his side were ‘unrecognisable’ in the first half against Boro on Sunday, Mowbray added: “You can’t judge us on the 45 minutes of the first half.

“In the recent defeats, we showed how good we can be against Brentford for 70 minutes having gone 2-0 up.

“The game against Bristol City, who have been on an amazing run, we were more than a match for them, and the game against Reading, how we haven’t won that I don’t know.

“There are no problems with the team, but we need to make sure we eradicate the performance in the first half.”