AFTER so many years as a player and now manager, Tony Mowbray has got used to playing against boyhood club Middlesbrough, even though he still does not like it.

But he is mindful that, for someone like Aynsley Pears, tonight could be an emotional one.

The young goalkeeper was brought in from Boro last month as understudy to summer signing Tomas Kaminski, not expecting to be thrust into the action so early.

But a groin strain for Kaminski means 22-year-old Pears will face his former employees at Ewood Park tonight less than three weeks after leaving the Riverside.

And Mowbray has urged the Durham-born stopper to play the game, not the occasion.

“You have to get the mentality right," said the Rovers boss. "I think a lot of players who play against clubs that they’ve left, they get emotionally too involved in the game and they forget to play the match, they forget to express their talent really.

“My message to Aynsley will just be to relax and play and try to do what he does, that’s why he’s here. He’s had a tough start to be honest, he conceded his first goal in nine seconds in his first game against Reading, which was no fault of his.

“He’s a quality goalie. He’s only 22 years old, his best years are in front of him. He just needs to try to relax and enjoy the game. Hopefully he does well, hopefully he helps the team get three points and gets his career with us off and running."

Mowbray added: “Sometimes you forget players are playing clubs they’ve got an emotional attachment to and they need to really focused and play the game and not get too emotionally attached. I’ve seen it many many times, players getting too wrapped up in it, running around like an idiot and forgetting they’re playing a football match."

In contrast, despite his vast experience in these scenarios, it's not a fixture that Mowbray relishes.

“I don’t really enjoy games against Boro," he said "It’s my team. As a boy, six years old, I went to see George Best go and play at Ayresome Park with my dad. He took me out of school because he felt the game was more important for me to go and watch.

“I’ve been a Boro fan all my life really and I always look for their results, I always care about what they’re doing and I wish them all the best in every game they play apart from when they play Blackburn Rovers.

“We’ll be desperate to try to get a positive result because we feel we deserve a lot more from what our efforts have been this year and if we get a scrappy 1-0 win we’ll be happy to take it and move on to the next one."