GARY Bowyer insists Blackburn Rovers will go into this weekend’s big Lancashire derby at home to Wigan Athletic with their confidence intact.

Rovers headed into the international break on the back of a 3-1 loss at high flying Wolves which has left them 14th in the early Championship standings.

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But their manager is adamant the performance they delivered at Molineux was better than the final result suggested.

And, if Rovers needed a boost after going down to their second league defeat of the season, Bowyer believes they have been given one by their trio of deadline day arrivals.

Jason Steele, Shane Duffy and Ryan Tunnicliffe are set to come into contention for Saturday’s visit of the Latics to Ewood Park.

And Rovers boss Bowyer said: “We go into the game against Wigan with a boost of the new faces coming in and the competition has already increased the intensity of the training because the nature of the lads we have got is competitive.

“Everybody is fighting for a shirt and that’s something I’ve always wanted ever since I took over.

“We’ve got that. We’ve got that attitude and got that character.

“But we also go into the Wigan game full of confidence in terms of our performance at Wolves.

“We were the away team and we’ve looked at the stats in terms of possession and goal attempts.

“We’ve just got to cut out the individual errors and a little bit of the soft defending that has given goals to the opposition.

“If we weren’t playing particularly well, we’d be worried.”

Rovers are hopeful striker Rudy Gestede will be fit to face Wigan after missing the match at Wolves with an injury he picked up in training.

But Bowyer’s options in goal, in defence and in midfield should certainly be stronger after the arrival of Steele, Duffy and Tunnicliffe.

The three news boys are all under the age of 24.

But Bowyer, who is attempting to build a team for the future as well as the present, maintains his policy of buying young has less to do with his background in youth development and more to do with value in the transfer market.

He said: “I enjoy working with good players.

“You are constantly learning and you learn off senior players as well and that’s what we’ve done over the last 12 months.

“But you have to understand the market and the market for the more senior ones.

“Sometimes they are on a hell of a lot of money whereas the younger ones who are making their way in the game have got the hunger, like the senior ones, but they are a bit more affordable.

“And like I’ve said for a long time now we have to understand where we are shopping and what we can and can’t afford.”

Rovers will once again be without Tommy Spurr on Saturday.

The left back has not played this season after sustaining a groin injury in training on the eve of the opener against Cardiff City.

But Spurr has stepped up his rehabilitation and is targeting a first-team return by the start of next month.