GARY Bowyer has hailed Danny Murphy’s contribution to Rovers’ recent upturn in fortunes after admitting his experience has been invaluable.

The former Spurs, Liverpool and England midfielder gave Rovers an early lead in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Bristol City, as Bowyer’s men made it three wins out of three for the first time since 2008.

Caretaker boss Bowyer remained coy on his own Ewood Park future, despite his 100 per cent start to life in the hot seat, and preferred to heap all the praise on his players.

He said: “It was a great start for us and a good strike from Danny. Since myself and Terry have come in and had to look after the team, Danny has been brilliant his support for us has been magnificent and we can’t praise him enough.

“His goal was good and he reminded the lads on Friday that he had won the FA Cup with Liverpool. He has been great for the lads and great for us.

“The majority of the senior lads have been magnificent and he is one of those. We would be daft not to call on his experience and he has been great for us.”

Rovers controlled Saturday’s third round tie for long periods against a Bristol City side who looked every inch the Championship strugglers they currently are.

But Bowyer insists league form counted for nothing and was quick to praise his players’ professionalism and spirit.

“We knew it would be a tough game,” he said. “They have some good players and even at 2-0 they were still having a go.

“It is always a tough game as I don’t think league form comes into a cup competition. I think we were lucky getting the goal as early as we did and it settled us down.

“The lads are going to have a couple of days off because they are absolutely shattered. The energy they showed and the spirit was fantastic. You look at Simon Vukcevic filling in at right back and Colin Kazim-Richards’ efforts to see that.

“Grant Hanley and Scott Dann have been immense the last three games. They have played with real aggression and defended for their lives. Two clean sheets is massive for them and the fact they can link up in the opposition’s box is nothing short of outstanding.

“The confidence is coming from their work rate and their commitment and desire they have been showing in games.”

Meanwhile, when it comes to his own future, Bowyer was adamant he was taking things game by game.

He said: “We have been asked to take care of it until the end of January, but we are aware that in football anything can happen.

“The right candidate might pop out of somewhere so it will be game by game and if we get to the end of January we will see what the board want to do.”