TONY Mowbray will be an interested spectator at Leyland this evening as Rovers Under-23s begin their Premier League 2 Cup campaign against Cardiff City (7pm).

Damien Johnson’s men have enjoyed an excellent start in the league campaign, winning four of their opening five games, and Mowbray believes it’s important to take an interest in the club’s production line.

The boss has handed senior debuts to Andrew Fisher, Lewis Travis, Matty Platt, Stefan Mols and Joe Rankin-Costello already this season in the Checkatrade Trophy, and admits he has been very impressed with their progress.

“I talk to Damien (Johnson) and Dunny (David Dunn) every day,” said Mowbray. “I have my own office but it’s across the way from theirs and I always have my door open.

“It’s important that I know how they are doing. I try and watch every game I can and it’s important that they see the manager there and they know they are only one injury away from getting their debuts and being around it.

“It’s interesting to gauge Damien’s thoughts on it, I know he likes some of his players, but he also appreciates that Blackburn Rovers have to be competing at the top end of the table to get out of League One.

“It’s not really a season for blooding young players for the sake of blooding young players.

“The ideal situation would be to get promoted with six games to go and then really throw some young players in and give them a test.

“At the minute, while I do like a number of the Under-23s, it’s very difficult to put the burden of having to win every Saturday and Tuesday on the shoulders of the young players when we have experienced players trying to get the job done.”

The Under-23s train alongside the senior side at Brockhall, but regularly join in with first-team training when numbers are short. And Mowbray admits there is a real team ethic.

He said: “I like the environment they are in at the moment, I see them working extraordinarily hard for each other and driving each added, competing with each other to get better every day.

“That’s such a great learning environment for young players. We’re not just trying to put a team together to get one star through, we’ve got a team where six, seven or even eight of them might push through eventually.

“They do that by competing and pushing each other every day in training.

“I am enjoying watching them, we need to give them an opportunity when we can and if the right opportunity for a loan comes up we look at that seriously to try and get some men’s football and hopefully they would come back better prepared.”

Mowbray revealed there had been loan enquiries for some of the youngsters before the transfer window closed and admits temporary moves in January could be beneficial to some of the players.

He added: “Young (Scott) Wharton went away to Cambridge and I’m sure he physically found it tough but it helped him cope and a lot of that is why I have talked about the loan window should be kept open for League One and League Two for young players to go out and gain that experience, particularly if teams in those leagues need personnel, they can take players from the league up.

“We had one or two enquiries about some of Under-23s in the last window but it is only if they are the right club who are going to develop them.”