BLACKBURN Rovers boss Gary Bowyer has called for the Football League season to be extended in future years, after believing his side have been penalised for FA Cup success.

Rovers reached the quarter finals of the FA Cup this season but fell out of promotion contention in the second half of the campaign, with Bowyer insisting that a fixture backlog played its part.

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Rovers travel to Birmingham City in the Championship tonight and their home game with Millwall next Tuesday will be their ninth midweek match in 11 weeks.

Their only two free midweeks came because of the international break and Bowyer thinks that fixture congestion caused by their cup run has been a big contributory factor in Rovers’ lengthy injury list, which he believes ultimately ended their chances of catching the top six.

A transfer embargo has not helped either, limiting the manager’s ability to sign replacements, but he insists the Football League must do more to help clubs who take the FA Cup seriously.

Bowyer says new guidelines this year have required league matches called off because of the FA Cup to be played in the following midweek, as was the case with Rovers’ Championship fixtures against Derby, Cardiff and Bolton.

He also thinks it is not necessary for the Football League season to finish on May 2, a full three weeks before the end of the Premier League.

“I think it’s certainly something that they’ve got to look at because not only does the Premier League go on longer, but we play more games in the league,” said the Rovers boss.

“This year I think more than any, when you’ve had a cup run you then have to play that league game, if it’s got called off, straight after in midweek.

“Whereas before you’ve been able to slot it in when you feel free.

“That’s not been allowed this season from my understanding, so that’s certainly played a part in it.

“You want to encourage teams to have a cup run like we had.

“You don’t want to give teams any encouragement not to field strong teams in the cup.”

Rovers have seen Rudy Gestede, Craig Conway, David Dunn, Chris Taylor, Josh King, Alex Baptiste, Doneil Henry, Grant Hanley, Shane Duffy and Jason Lowe all sidelined through injury in recent weeks.

Bowyer says Rovers have also assessed their own procedures to see if they can do anything different to prevent injuries.

“The medical team that we have here and the sports science team, Chris Neville goes away with England every international break so that shows you the standard we have here,” he said.

“Obviously everyone takes it personally so we’ve certainly studied what we’ve done and sometimes you just have to put your hands up and say it’s one of those things. Injuries are part and parcel of football.

“Unfortunately for us it all seems to have happened roughly around the same time.

“I think the fixture list with the way it’s set out sometimes doesn’t help the players.

“I think we played four games in one month then you’re playing seven or maybe eight in another month.

“It’s been the load on the players that has caused the problem towards the back end of the season.”

Rovers will be aiming to extend their unbeaten run away from home to eight games at Birmingham tonight and Bowyer said after Saturday’s draw at Reading that Gestede and Conway could be fit to feature at St Andrew’s.

Scan results have revealed that Baptiste will be out for two weeks with a hamstring problem.

“It’s not as bad as first feared,” the manager said.

“We think he’ll be a couple of weeks but it’s not a completely bad one, so hopefully we might be able to get him back in before the end of the season.”