Over 6,000 stickers were applied to seats at Ewood Park on Saturday as part of the club’s socially distanced stadium plan.

That was the latest step the club have taken to ensure the stadium is ready to welcome back supporters when the guidelines allow.

Nine Championship clubs will be able to have supporters present this week, including Rovers’ game at Brentford on Saturday, after the latest Government announcement.

That was that areas placed under Tier 2 restrictions from December 2 would be allowed to have 2,000 fans present at games, but those in Tier 3 will remain playing behind closed doors.

Rovers’ win over Barnsley was their sixth home game of the season, and 11th since they last were able to house fans, that being the 2-2 draw with Swansea City on February 29.

Some nine months have passed since then, but the club have worked hard behind the scenes to make Ewood safe and secure to welcome back supporters, hoping that could be as early as next month.

Players, chief executive Steve Waggott, finance director Mike Cheston, as well as other club and Community Trust, staff were among those placing stickers on seats, which continued during the Barnsley win.

A further 2,000 stickers are still to be added, though some of those are in areas of the stadium currently occupied by cardboard cut-outs in the family stand, and the flags and banners in the Blackburn End.

One way systems, associated signage and sanitiser stations are all in place, as the club continue to liaise, and work alongside, the council and Public Health England in a bid to get infection rates under control so that supporters can be allowed back as soon, and safely, as possible.

The decision to place Blackburn with Darwen into Tier 3 came as no surprise to the club who earlier this month were part of a group of 13 northern clubs that wrote to the Government after the EFL was missed off the bail-out money handed to professional sports.

Restrictions will be reviewed every two weeks, with Rovers hoping that could see the area move into Tier 2 as early as December 16. The next home game after that would be the Boxing Day visit of Sheffield Wednesday.

Rovers put season tickets on sale in September, with just shy of 2,500 sold. That means that demand will slightly outstrip supply, should the level of fans allowed to return be at 2,000.

Within the season ticket application fans outlined others within their social bubbles which has enabled the club to draw up a stadium plan, meaning consecutive seating will vary from one, up to five.

A code of conduct is also detailed on the club website, with a temperature check required upon entry, while masks must be worn at any point when not sat in your allocated seat.

This week Rovers released a video in which star players Thomas Kaminski, Bradley Dack and Adam Armstrong reiterated the ‘hands, face, space’ mantra, with CEO Waggott feeling the club can play a part in helping bring down infection rates with the positive messages it can provide.

He said: “I would say that going forward, once we get to a more positive position with the R rate and the number of cases, which is high in the Blackburn with Darwen area, and we’re trying to work effectively with Public Health England to try and assist with that, because I’m saying football isn’t part of the problem, it’s part of the solution.

“We’re one of the most regulated environments and I feel much safer going into a football game than I do going into a supermarket. We spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on safety and security and bio-security and we’re well versed in it all.”

Rovers had hoped to be part of the pilot scheme, when up to 2,000 fans were allowed at matches in September, only to be knocked back because of local infection rates.

They have continued to push for the return of supporters, and Tony Mowbray hopes it won’t be long before his players will get the backing of fans inside Ewood once again.

“I know clubs have put in huge effort to make sure the environment is right when fans are allowed back in,” he explained.

“We all have to work hard to do our very best, to follow government guidelines, and hopefully, over time, the numbers will come down and the tiers will come down.

“Hopefully numbers in stadiums will go up pretty quickly.”