Damien Johnson is backing his young charges to respond once again as they aim to stretch their lead at the top of the Premier League 2 Division Two table.

The Under-23s were beaten by Aston Villa in the last 16 of the Premier League Cup on Friday, their nearest challengers in the league, and are back in action against Southampton at Leyland tonight (7pm).

Rovers have five games remaining and lead the table by a point with a game in hand.

And despite being without many of his regular faces, Johnson is confident his side can respond against the Saints.

He said: “We lost the game against Newcastle (to the weather) and then had the game at Aston Villa.

“We’ve picked up a couple of knocks, (Lewis) Mansell and (Joe) Nuttall in the past few weeks, so the lads will have to dust themselves down.

“We have not had too many setbacks this season but when we have then we have always responded in the right way so we’ll be looking for that again.”

With the first-team in the middle of an enforced 17-day break from action, Tony Mowbray could hand minutes to a number of fringe players tonight.

Okera Simmonds, a February signing from Liverpool, is expected to lead the line having got off the mark in Rovers colours earlier this month.

On his development, Johnson added: “For whatever reason he lost his way at Liverpool.

“He’s one that we’ve taken in and he does some really good things but ultimately he’s going to be judged what comes at the end of it.

“We need to make sure there’s an end product there, he needs to keep working hard because there’s glimpses of potential there.

“We’re happy to give lads an opportunity. We will try and develop them but it’s down to them and how hard they want to work and how much they want to take on board the information.

“He’s settled in to the group quite well, he got off the mark against Stoke but I’ve said that if he wants to play in that area of the pitch then it’s going to be about his end product.

“There will be plenty of demands from him on us.”