Stewart Downing sees an identity about Rovers but feels they need to rediscover their early-season killer instinct.

Rovers remain the Championship’s top scorers with 38 goals, but have failed to score on eight occasions this season, and managed just seven in their previous eight matches, after defeat to Doncaster in the FA Cup on Saturday.

There they managed 20 shots at goal, but only forced two saves from visiting goalkeeper Ellery Balcombe, who made a fine double-stop to deny Harvey Elliott and Bradley Dack.

But Rovers were wasteful in their other chances, a far cry from earlier in the season.

Downing, who was visibly frustrated at being replaced in the second half, said: “You can see the ideas, the passing and the movement is looking good.

“But if you don’t put the ball in the net, it’s ultimately the end product that wins you the games rather than looking pretty.

“We were killing teams at the start of the season, everything was getting finished off, but it’s just not happened of late for us.

“So we need to get back to that, let’s keep the belief and hopefully turn the results back into wins for us.”

The midfielder was handed his first start since re-signing for the club in November after seven substitute appearances.

He will now have eyes on a league start as Rovers exited the FA Cup at the third round stage for the fourth successive year.

On the game, he told the club website: “We created quite a few chances in what was quite a stodgy game.

“I think you have to give credit to Doncaster. They were quite brave in the way they played, they gave us chances, but we weren’t clinical enough really.

“We had the chances but we didn’t put them away.

“They only had one or two shots, but they got the bit of luck with the goal and it’s gone in.

“They probably deserved to go through because we weren’t clinical enough.”