HE may feel his side did not get the credit they deserved for spoiling Steve Evans’ big night – but Gary Bowyer is only too happy to lavish praise on his next managerial rival on the touchline.

Bowyer takes Blackburn Rovers to St Andrews tonight for a showdown with a manager he believes is destined for the Premier League.

Since leaving Burton Albion to take over Birmingham City a year ago Gary Rowett has steered them away from the relegation places and up to their current lofty position of sixth despite operating one of the smaller budgets in the Championship.

Rovers boss Bowyer said: “Gary has done a fantastic job. The way he went about it at Burton, he continued that at Birmingham last season, and they’ve started this season on fire.

“For them to be in the top six is testimony to the job he’s done. He’s a fantastic young manager who in my opinion is only going one way – and that’s to the Premiership.”

Rowett, however, is facing the prospect of suffering three straight league defeats for the first time in his Blues reign after his high-flying team lost 2-0 at home to Midlands rivals Wolves on Saturday.

Bowyer, along with his assistant manager Terry McPhillips, watched on from the stands and said: “It was a typical derby when the first goal was always going to be important.

“Birmingham started the game ever so well and got caught with a slight mistake in the back-four, but it could have gone either way.”

Bowyer was able to take advantage of a rare Saturday off after Rovers returned to winning ways two nights earlier.

Their 2-0 triumph at Leeds United was somewhat overshadowed by the fallout to new boss Evans first home game in charge of the troubled Elland Road outfit.

“I still think in certain quarters we didn’t get enough credit for our performance,” said Bowyer, whose only disappointment was that Rovers did not pile the woe on to Leeds in the second half after scoring twice inside the first six minutes.

“At the end of the game you have to assess the game and not what a manager’s first game didn’t do or did do. It’s the actual game – and our players deserved a lot more credit than what got for their performance.

“I thought their bravery on the ball and the way they went about the game was excellent. The football we played was very good and we continued from the standards we’ve set throughout the season.

“Then you saw the maturity of the players to see the game out, and be professional. We had a time when the captain was missing and we were down to 10 men, but I thought we coped with that very well as well. I was very pleased with how we went about it.

“It was our first away win (of the season), and rightly they enjoyed it in that moment, but now we’ve got to back it up, and it’s important that we do that on Tuesday.

“It’s about going out there and reproducing the performance levels that we’ve shown in the last month and a half, concentrating on ourselves and going to take the challenge to Birmingham.”