GARY Bowyer has hailed the spirit of his Blackburn Rovers side as “truly remarkable” after seeing them make light of the chaos surrounding the club to beat Barnsley on Saturday.

Goals from Josh King, Ruben Rochina and Jordan Rhodes helped Rovers to a 3-1 victory at Oakwell, despite having lost their second manager of the season, when Henning Berg was sacked last week.

Reserve team boss Bowyer took the temporary reins, helped by youth team manager Terry McPhillips, but was full of praise for the response of his players.

He said: “It is brilliant for the lads to have got the three points. “I can’t praise them enough, they were magnificent in training and have done the same in the game.

“The levels of performance from everybody was first class. “The way we defended and threw bodies on the line to block shots, through to the pace we attacked with I was truly proud of the way we went about it.

“We have got some good players and they went about it the right way. It is a cliché but I can’t praise them enough.

“They have ended the year on a high and now they have to reproduce that on New Year’s Day.

“We just got on with it. The players bought into it and were first class. All of them have been truly remarkable.” Manchester United loanee King, who has one more match left at Rovers, got Bowyer’s men off the mark, before Spaniard Rochina doubled the lead before half time.

The hosts pulled a goal back late on but were soundly beaten as Rhodes made it 3-1 in the closing moments.

Bowyer said: “Ruben has got a great left foot. When you put him in front of goal he is capable of that and it was a great finish.

“I am delighted for Jordan Rhodes as well. He is a Barnsley lad and worked tremendously hard all afternoon.”

Bowyer also spared a thought for his former coaching colleagues, who were sacked along with boss Berg after the defeat to Middlesbrough.

He said: “I had a great working relationship with Eric Black, Iain Brunskill and Bobby Mimms. “It is not nice seeing them leave the club, it wasn’t nice at all, so that was a little bit for them definitely.

“The lads went about it the right way, they worked tirelessly, it was a really, really good performance.”