TONY Mowbray believes ending Shrewsbury Town's unbeaten start to the League One season would give Rovers 'kudos and confidence'.

Rovers became the first team since March 2016 to win a league game at Bradford City last month, and also ended Scunthorpe United's unbeaten start to the season last month.

They now face the challenge of halting the early season optimism at the Montgomery Waters Meadow, with the Shrews having won seven, and drawn one, of their opening eight league games.

That sees them lead the League One table by three points, with Rovers looking to bounce back from a defeat to AFC Wimbledon last time out.

“We move on to the next game at Shrewsbury Town and let’s go and give them a game and see if we can be the first team to beat them this year and if we can, we would take the kudos and confidence from that and take it in to the next one,” Mowbray said.

“We have to find a way to win different types of games and I have told the players this week that Shrewsbury are a lot different from Bradford, from Scunthorpe, so I don’t see the same game unfolding in front of us.

“We will have to be very guarded against Shrewsbury and the way that they play. It’s a way that is working for them, seven wins and a draw from their eight games is a fantastic start to the season for them.

“Hopefully we can get the game-plan right and pick up the points.”

Paul Hurt's side only secured their League One status on the final day of last season, but are currently three points clear at the top of the table with eight games played.

They have won each of their four home games to date, keeping three clean sheets, though Rovers too have been impressive on the road of late, winning each of their last three away fixtures, at Bradford, Rochdale and Scunthorpe, without conceding a goal.

On why he believes Shrewsbury find themselves in the position they do, Mowbray said: “They have an extremely good work ethic, very well organised out of possession and have a goal threat.

“They get a lot of men behind the ball very quickly, there’s not a lot of space to play your football in and you have also got to be very conscious of the counter-attack because they have a lot of pace and energy to break off the back of you if you get too spread out.

“We will go there and try and play our football, get a result and be the dominant team if we can, but also be conscious of leaving ourselves too open.”