AFTER four goals in his first six Rovers outings, it has been something of a frustrating time for Dominic Samuel since.

He still tops the club’s scoring charts with five goals, but the last of those came in the 1-0 victory over Gillingham on September 30 - his only goal not in the month of August.

But with his last league start not coming since October 14, his claims were certainly not helped by a red card in the closing stages of the win over Portsmouth on October 21.

Then, on his return to the fold in the Checkatrade Trophy at Rochdale last week, he was substituted just after the half hour mark as Rovers reshuffled following Scott Wharton’s red card.

But the Rovers boss is pleased to welcome back his top scorer who also offers the option of playing off the right should Mowbray wish to switch things up in attack with a shortage of options in wide positions.

Mowbray said: “It was frustrating for Dom really but he’s had a good training period.

“Dominic is okay, he’s not banging on my door moaning about it, but when his opportunity comes to start he has to put the ball in the back of the net and make life really difficult for me to leave him out of the team.

“That goes for all the strikers, when they get on the pitch they have to try and score and make my life difficult for selection for the next game.”

Mowbray opted to substitute Samuel, rather than Joe Nuttall who would go on to score Rovers’ goal at Rochdale in their last outing on November 7.

Explaining the reasoning behind that change, Mowbray added: “I could have taken a midfield player off I suppose and left the two up top but Rochdale are a decent passing team, don’t really go back to front and if we emptied midfield them I’m sure they would have got through.”

Mowbray has chopped and changed his forward line so far, but no-one has yet really cemented their place in the side, with Rovers the second lowest scorers out of the top 11 sides in the division.

Samuel has five goals from 16 games in all competitions, Marcus Antonsson four from 14 and Danny Graham three from 15, while the emergence of Joe Nuttall, four goals in five senior games, means Mowbray isn’t short of options.

And the boss said: “Hopefully we can give the players the best opportunity to help the team win and put them in a formation that helps them, not to put too many square pegs in round holes.

“The forward area of the pitch is looking okay, obviously we have to try and transmit that in to goals by giving them the right service.

“Let’s hope there’s some goals in the team because we have some good attacking options.”

Rovers will be without Craig Conway due to a hamstring injury but he is expected back in training next week and pushing for a return.

But the same injury is set to keep Middlesbrough loanee Harry Chapman out of the reckoning until well after the New Year after undergoing surgery.