Tony Mowbray plans to mix up his side once again when Rovers travel to Lincoln City (3pm).

The eight players who came on for the final half an hour against Liverpool on Thursday night are likely to be among the starters at Sincil Bank.

Mowbray hopes to have Danny Graham available after he missed the last two outings, with Rovers short of options in the attacking areas of the pitch.

Dominic Samuel came through 90 minutes against Liverpool, while eight other players completed an hour.

So the likes of Peter Whittingham, Craig Conway and Paul Downing, as well as a number of the young players at Mowbray’s disposal, who came on in the closing stages of the Liverpool defeat are expected to start against the League Two side.

“We’ll take those players and make sure they all get game-time which is what pre-season is about,” Mowbray said of the side which finished the 2-0 defeat to Liverpool.

“I can’t get to the end of pre-season and people haven’t had the minutes on the pitch.

“You have to give everyone an opportunity and the team at Lincoln will be balanced from who played against Liverpool.

“Then against Everton it will be balanced against the Accrington team.

“After that we will then train hard in the build-up to Ipswich.”

The trip to Lincolnshire will be the fourth of Rovers’ six pre-season matches and comes two weeks before the start of the new Championship season.

Rovers have a win against Hibs, a draw at Port Vale and Thursday’s 2-0 defeat to Liverpool on their record so far, with Everton on July 26 and Accrington Stanley on July 28 their two remaining matches after today.

With Rovers short of options in attack, Samuel came through 90 minutes, while Bradley Dack operated in a central striking role.

But Mowbray isn’t paying too much attention as to who plays in what positions as he looks to share the minutes around among his squad.

“It’s all about the fitness,” the boss explained.

“The shape we played isn’t the one we’ll be playing when the season kicks off I’m pretty sure about that.

“It was about putting players in positions they felt half comfortable.

“If you have a lot of midfield players then you have to play three in midfield so those will get games, otherwise you’re playing them all out of position.

“We were really short of strikers so had to put them in to positions which didn’t take them out of their comfort zones.”

Rovers are still without Ben Gladwin, Sam Hart and Paul Caddis, but Mowbray is hoping that Graham will be involved having played just 45 minutes in the close season so far.

Goalkeeper Jayson Leutwiler overcame a knock to feature in the final half an hour against Liverpool and could start against Lincoln.

The Imps were beaten in the semi-finals of the play-offs last year by Exeter and will be eyeing another crack at promotion next term and have added powerful forward John Akinde from Barnet.

Lincoln have played two Championship sides already, beaten 3-1 and 1-0 by Norwich City and Sheffield Wednesday respectively.