TONY Mowbray admits Rovers have no ‘divine right’ to win games in League One and says he is still trying to build a team as part of a wider project at Ewood Park.

Mowbray is tasked with leading Rovers back to the Championship but has seen his side endure a stop-start opening to the season, winning six and losing four of their 11 league games.

Rovers were heavy favourites to win promotion at the first attempt but have found life tough so far, although the Ewood boss believes his side will get stronger as the season progresses.

“In my opinion we’re doing okay from where we are, where we started, the team we have put together and I think it’s wrong for people to think that we were going to run over the top of this league,” Mowbray explained.

“You see every game how tight it is, teams are making it very difficult. It’s a physical, competitive league and we have to keep going and try and blend the team and as the season unfolds create a scenario where teams set off on the back foot against us rather than having a go.

“I think it is a bigger project than just turning up and winning games in League One because no team has a divine right to do that, you have to try and build a team ethic and unified team.

“We are still trying to build a team from the dozen signings and those left over from last season, it is a new team and without making excuses I still think they are finding out the strengths and weaknesses of each other and I still think we have players that haven’t settled in.

“It’s a team that will hopefully get stronger as we go on but are obviously disappointed when we lose matches.”

There was an angry reaction among the 3,500 travelling fans to defeat at Oldham on Saturday and when asked if the feeling of defeat, and expectation, as manager of Rovers in League One was similar to that of when he was in charge at Celtic, Mowbray said: “It feels so and yet the reality is different.

“What we have found when we’ve been away from home, and at home, teams in this league have some good footballers, I don’t see a gulf in class on the pitch.

“I don’t see really poor teams, I see really honest and hardworking teams who can all run and are organised, make like difficult and all hugely up for the games.

“That’s why there are tight football matches, we’re not winning 3-0 or 4-0 every week. Every team is making life difficult for us and there are no easy games.”

Rovers host basement boys Plymouth Argyle this evening, and with Portsmouth due at Ewood Park on Saturday, Mowbray wants a positive reaction from his side.

He added: “The important thing for us now is Tuesday, the games are coming thick and fast and we’ve managed to get some positive results at home and in the next two home games if we can get another couple of positive results then things will look a bit clearer for us.

“We’ll be up and around the top six with games in hand and we have to keep going.

“Ultimately for us it’s about accumulating points and hopefully we can grow stronger and stronger as the season goes on.”