Tony Mowbray said the performance over Everton with what is his expected starting XI at Ipswich Town shows Rovers can be competitive this season.

But the boss is still eyeing new additions in a bid to add more depth to his squad after the 1-0 defeat at Accrington Stanley.

Kasey Palmer looks set to become the club’s third summer signing as Rovers tie up a loan deal for the Chelsea youngster.

Rovers are also hoping to make positive strides in their pursuit of a Manchester City attacker on loan when they return from their pre-season tour in America. 

Mowbray is still eyeing up to three other incomings before the respective transfer windows close next month, but he is happy with the players on the club’s books.

He said: “I would hope we could sign a few more players before the window shuts and a couple more before the loan window shuts.

“The team on Thursday showed that we’re more than capable of going in to the Championship with this group and competing as we need to.

“What we need to do is strengthen the group so that when injuries and suspensions come along we can replace high quality with quality.”

Rovers were relegated from the Championship in 2016/17 when they didn’t win any of their opening seven games.

So Mowbray knows the importance of a good opening to the season, but added: “Everyone wants to make a good start, we wanted to last season yet we lost our first two games.

“Let’s see, I feel as if we have some choices to make on who starts, we’re going to try and add more players this week if we can.

“We want to try and build the group but the team on Thursday showed that we can be really competitive.

“Whoever we play in the Championship I’m sure we’ll be competitive.”