Rovers head to Pride Park to take on a Derby side who Tony Mowbray believes are a ‘powerhouse’ in what is an open Championship division this year.

Leeds United finally secured promotion to the Premier League last time out, with Fulham and West Brom bouncing back at the first opportunity, which Mowbray expects will see a more tightly-contested top six this season.

Leeds, West Brom, Fulham and Brentford were right at the top end of the table for much of the season, though the Rovers boss doesn’t think that will be the case this time around, despite expecting the recently-relegated Premier League teams to be strong once again.

He includes Derby in the conversation, despite their start to the season which has seen them lose both their opening games, and also feels there will be an opportunity for Rovers to be in the play-off mix this time around after falling short last year.

They had a chance to climb into the top six when they last visited Pride Park in March, only to be beaten 3-0, and not since August 2018 have Rovers been inside the play-off spots.

The resources available to clubs in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic will be factored in, with parachute payments likely to be key for the relegated trio, but Mowbray sees a chance for his side to be in the conversation come the end of the season.

“I think Norwich will be really strong, Watford depending on how their new coach adapts to the league. The Premier League sides who come down have a £40m start but that doesn’t always guarantee success of course,” he explained.

“It did for West Brom, but not for Stoke City and Sunderland before that, it can go both ways.

“I do think the fact the clubs like Barnsley and Luton survived, that Wycombe came up, there are some opportunities that, with total respect to those clubs, they’re not Leeds, Aston Villa, huge football clubs that have been around this league for a few years.

“I think there’s opportunities, if you’re looking at the strong teams in the league being Norwich, Watford, Bournemouth, you would think they’re going to be strong, look at the quality Bournemouth had, two £15m strikers, £13m and £12m centre halves, an £18m central midfielder, that’s ridiculous money in this league and you have to go and compete against them.

“I would assume they’re pretty strong with those highly-paid footballers because quality does count in any league.

“The rest of the league, how strong are the other contenders, Derby and Forest again? There’s still big football clubs in this league, how are they going to do this year?

“But there’s no real monsters that there have been in the Championship this year and it is going to be a league where if you can get it right on the pitch you should be competing to get in the top six.”

Derby have brought through a number of young players under Phillip Cocu, but still have the experience of Wayne Rooney in their ranks, as well as new £3m man Kamil Jozwiak, the Polish winger who Rovers tracked in January. Jordon Ibe has become the Rams latest signing, with Cocu intending to strengthen yet still, as Derby themselves look to push towards the top six once again.

“This is a completely different challenge to the one we faced last weekend,” Mowbray said.

“They have some talent in their team and it’s a dangerous game, as they all are in this league.

“Nobody should get carried away with Derby’s start to this season, they’re still a powerhouse in this league with some highly paid players.

“Like I say, they’ve just spent £3m on a young player from Poland (Jozwiak) and they are a big player in this league who have been in and around the play-offs in the last few years.

“We suffered a pretty substantial defeat at the back end of the season at Derby.

 “But we’ve performed well against Derby over the last four years and they’ve always been good games, good contests.”