BLACKBURN Rovers’ caretaker manager Gary Bowyer has stressed the importance of keeping the ‘winning habit’ – as he gets the opportunity to scratch a 26-year family itch.

Bowyer, who is set to continue in temporary charge until the end of the month with under 18 boss Terry McPhillips, revealed there would be no cup reshuffle for this afternoon’s third round visit of Bristol City as he looks to stretch Rovers’ two-match winning streak.

Some 26 years after his dad, Ian Bowyer, was interviewed for the Rovers hotseat – ultimately losing out to Don Mackay – the caretaker boss is being touted by some as a candidate for the full time role at Ewood Park after a winning start to his temporary reign.

But the man who has been in charge of the reserves for almost two years insists he is just focusing on helping the club out wherever he can.

He said: “Momentum is very important. The players are very eager to carry this little run on and we are going into the Bristol City looking to win it.

“I don’t think league positions come into the FA Cup. We have seen over the years you can get upsets in the FA Cup, so there are no favourites. It will be a tough game.

“There won’t be any drastic changes. We will have a look and see if we have picked up any knocks, but we will be looking to get the win and get into the next round.

“Tomorrow our focus is to try and beat Bristol City. It will be a tough game but that is all we can control.

“It will be a tough game at Ewood but the fans have been magnificent for the last couple of games. We need their support and hopefully they can come along and cheer the lads on again because it was greatly appreciated.

“We have the option to rotate because we have a big and a good squad but the players are eager to keep the momentum going.”

Bowyer was non committal when asked if he would be interested in succeeding Henning Berg full time, insisting he would just continue until told otherwise.

“We were approached on Thursday and asked if we could continue until January,” he said. “I have said it all along, we have been trying to help the club and that is what we will continue to do.

“We were in regular contact with the club and when they asked us to do that, we just helped out again.

“We can only control what we can do. Even though it has settled it down for a month, Im sure people will still be linked with it and who knows who pops out in the next month. It might be the ideal candidate and the club might have to act. They might act sooner.

“Myself and Terry are not daft. We have been in the game long enough and seen it could go the other way quite easily in the next couple of games. Then we would not be as popular as we are this week.

“To be fair to the players they deserve a lot of credit. All we have said to them is we can only control what happens on the training ground and matches and that is what they have done.

“They have focused on winning. They are professional players and want to win for themselves and the fans.”