DANNY Graham has started 10 consecutive league games for Rovers and has nine goals in his last 15 outings, but that doesn’t mean he is guaranteed to start at Portsmouth tonight.

Graham has eight in his last nine matches at Ewood Park but the 32-year-old has scored just once away from home in League One.

That came against Rochdale in September, while he also netted the winner in the FA Cup second round replay at Crewe Alexandra.

And Rovers boss Tony Mowbray will consider the options available to him tonight, adding that Graham’s goal statistics will not affect his starting XI.

He said: “Generally it’s assessing the opposition, the defenders they have got and whether it would be a benefit to use his physicality in a game.

“We assess whether the opposition will use a high press and whether we need to go over the top of that and there’s someone there to hold the ball up, and in to all that we have to factor his (Graham’s) age and how quickly the games come.

“Danny is on board with that, I try and have a chat with him about it and I’m sure whatever decision we make he’s fine with.”

Graham has been preferred to Dominic Samuel of late, while Adam Armstrong will be vying for inclusion after his equaliser off the bench against Oldham last time out.

On the opposition available from the bench, after the impact of Lewis Travis and Armstrong, Mowbray said: “It’s good to be able to turn round, looking at the bench and think ‘we can do this’ and that’s huge for a coach.

“Before we’d have looked around and there would have been a lot of young faces and you’re not sure who is going to make the difference but at this time we’ve some experienced faces who are champing at the bit to get on the field.”