ROVERS boss Tony Mowbray says his side must learn to overcome the challenges posed by stubborn opposition as they fell to defeat against AFC Wimbledon.

Mowbray saw his side’s winning run end at four as Kwesi Appiah scored the only goal of the game in the first half.

The visitors then proved hard to break down, as Rovers failed to score for the first time this season on the way to a second home defeat of the campaign.

Mowbray admits Rovers have worked on trying to break down other sides, and feels it is a challenge they will continue to face at Ewood Park throughout the season.

“I think we have to be more clinical,” Mowbray told the Lancashire Telegraph.

“We’re going to face that a lot this season, teams defending like that, especially when you give them a goal start, it becomes really difficult.

“We have to find ways of beating teams like that, and there was just a little bit of indiscipline in that final 20 minutes, and we looked to play off Danny Graham too much and that’s not the way to win football matches in my opinion.

“That’s something that the team have to learn.

“That’s why we have to keep working at.

“The back end of last week we did a lot of work on the final third and how to try and break teams down.”

Rovers have now lost two of their opening three league games in front of their own fans.

But they have proved successful on the road, winning three of their first four away games.

That included a run of four consecutive wins, and Mowbray says his side have shown that they can be hard to beat themselves.

He added: “They have shown over the last couple of weeks how hard to beat they can be, and how difficult they make it for other teams.

“But when another team did that to us we didn’t have the guile to break them down.”

Rovers will now face a week on the training pitch as they prepare for a trip to the Montgomery Waters Meadow to face leaders Shrewsbury Town.

The Shrews are five points clear at the top of League One, with seven wins and a draw from their opening eight league games.

And Mowbray said: “It’s going to be a long week now, going to Shrewsbury who are top of the league with seven wins already.

“That will be a really difficult trip, but one that we’re looking forward to next weekend.

“I think we need to utilise the squad, but having won four games in a row it’s difficult to do that.”